QUIRKY WORLD ... A daily look at some of the world’s stranger stories
Downing Street has disowned a Tory backbencher who branded Russian president Vladimir Putin a “tosser” amid diplomatic skirmishing between the countries.
Henry Smith used Twitter to express his opinion of Putin, host to the world’s leaders including British Prime Minister David Cameron at the G20 summit in St Petersburg.
Tensions have been running high at the gathering, with Cameron dismissing the prospect of consensus on Syria and complaining that Russia remains “miles away” from the truth of Bashar al-Assad’s chemical weapons use.
A Kremlin official is reported to have told journalists that Britain is “just a small island, no one pays any attention to them” — although the president’s chief spokesman denied making the jibe.
Putin really is a tosser.
— Henry Smith 🇬🇧 (@HenrySmithUK) September 6, 2013
A town’s honorary mayor, Stubbs the cat, has been badly injured in a vicious dog attack.
The Alaska community of Talkeetna elected the cat in a write-in campaign 15 years ago. But now Stubbs is sedated and under veterinary care after the attack which left him with a punctured lung, bruised hips, a long deep gash on his side, and a fractured sternum.
The next few days will be crucial in Stubbs’s recovery, but the cat has begun to sit up and eat, said owner Lauri Stec.
“He’s a freaking tough boy,” she added.
A company has apologised for producing condoms marked with an offensive message that were used in a far-right party’s campaign against immigrant births.
The contraceptives, ordered by the youth wing of the National Democratic Party (NPD), came in black boxes bearing the slogan “For foreigners and certain Germans”. The activists sent them to politicians as a protest against “unchecked immigration”.
The message had a particular resonance in the country where the Nazi party also tried to control childbirth, encouraging people considered pure-blood Germans to breed, while going as far as sterilising people from other groups.
The condoms came with a letter, telling politicians: “We are protesting against unchecked immigration and the resulting population change in our country. You are failing to provide the foundations for a family policy which will halt the demographic catastrophe facing our people.”
Volker Beck, a member of Germany’s Green Party, complained to the maker of the condoms, R&S. The company apologised and pledged to donate 10,000 condoms as well as the proceeds from the NPD order to a German foundation against right-wing extremism and anti-Semitism.
Strictly Come Dancing contestant Ashley Taylor Dawson says he may have to miss the birth of his child — because it could clash with the first live show.
The Hollyoaks actor is to become a father for the second time later this month. But the due date is just two days before the live BBC1 shows begin on Sept 28. Dawson said he did not want to miss the start of the competition and may have to perform a quickstep to be at his fiancee’s side shortly after the birth if the two were to coincide.
“I’ve got a baby due on the 26th, I’m full time at work. We’ll work it out as we go along but I don’t want to miss the first show, I know that much. I don’t want to be worst father of the year either. I think I’d dance really quickly and get back to the birth.”
Trainspotters were given a rare treat as the Mallard steam locomotive was hauled from its usual home to return to the scene of its record-breaking run 75 years ago.
The engine left York, where it is housed at the National Railway Museum, to travel to Grantham to celebrate its world speed record set on Jul 3, 1938. Mallard hit a top speed of 203km/h at Stoke Bank, just outside Grantham, 75 years ago.
Mallard was hauled from York to Grantham ahead of the two-day Story of Speed festival in the Lincolnshire town. It will be joined by other historic exhibits as part of the event when visitors will get a close-up view of the steam engine as well as a chance to view a Deltic locomotive — Mallard’s high-speed diesel successor.
Two male cheetah cubs have joined the Dallas Zoo population — and zoo officials have given the big cats a dog as a companion.
The 8-week-old feline brothers, Winspear and Kamau, are being joined by a black labrador retriever puppy named Amani.
Since Labs are easygoing in public settings and since the pup will grow with the cubs, zoo experts believe they won’t fight like cats and dogs and Amani will provide a calming influence for the cheetahs.
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