QUIRKY WORLD ... A daily look at some of the world’s stranger stories
A couple’s marriage got off to a rocky start when the groom forgot his bride at a petrol station on the way home from their honeymoon, only noticing she was missing after hours had passed.
Police said the couple was heading home to Berlin from France when the man pulled over near the central town of Bad Hersfeld late on Thursday to fill up their van.
The woman had been sleeping in the back but got up — unbeknown to the man — to use the toilets and he drove off before she returned.
Only after two-and-a-half hours on the road did he notice she was gone and called police, who said she was patiently waiting.
A Kansas man who was walking along railroad tracks wearing headphones was hit by a train that he didn’t hear approaching behind him — but he got back up and kept walking.
Shawnee county sheriff Herman Jones says the conductor slowed down the train and blew the horn when he saw 25-year-old Kristopher Wenberg on the tracks in Topeka on Thursday.
Wenberg said he couldn’t hear the train, which eventually hit him. Wenberg got up promptly and rang someone on his phone as he walked away. He went to hospital with cuts on his legs and shoulder.
It is against the law to walk on train tracks and Wenberg would be cited for criminal trespass.
An official’s remarks that cooking fumes must share the blame for Beijing’s choking pollution drew ridicule by internet users, who mocked the government for not addressing the root causes of smog that can blanket the city for days on end.
The government has announced a series of plans over the years to tackle pollution in its cities that has been blamed for a series of health crises. But none have worked.
The head of Beijing’s foreign affairs office, Zhao Huimin, claimed “Chinese people’s cooking actually makes no small contribution to PM2.5”, referring to the tiny particulate matter that is most hazardous to health.
“I hope residents can do more to co-operate with government efforts to clean the air,” said Zhao.
People pounced on the comments, generating over 150,000 posts on Sina Weibo, China’s Twitter-like service.
One user wanted to know why the government “did not say that farting also makes no small contribution to PM2.5”.
Media said cooking fumes were in fact responsible for up to 20% of the particulate matter in Beijing’s air, citing a report published by the Chinese Academy of Science.
A woman has been charged with felony drunken driving after police in Billings, Montana, say she called 911 and said she was too drunk to get out of her vehicle.
The Billings Gazette reports 55-year-old Carol Frances Omeara appeared in Yellowstone County Justice Court and remained jailed on $3,000 (€2,215) bail.
Omeara was arrested after she called dispatchers and said she couldn’t get out of her vehicle. The dispatcher asked if she was having medical or mechanical issues. Court records say the caller replied that she was too drunk.
Prosecutors say Omeara’s blood-alcohol level was 0.311%, nearly four times the limit at which a driver is considered legally intoxicated.
GPS systems will be installed in government cars to thwart personal use by officials, as the Communist Party’s anti-corruption watchdog cracks down on the profligate lifestyles of corrupt officials.
Almost 200,000 government cars have been misused for private purposes, the Beijing Times said.
The central commission for discipline inspection also recommended that ministries and regions detail the expenses of car costs.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
