QUIRKY WORLD ... Woman sues after falling fowl of duck
A woman visiting her mother in Oregon is suing her neighbour, seeking $275,000 (€199,000) for pain, suffering, and other damages she says were inflicted when a pet duck ambushed her.
Cynthia Ruddell, 62, of Washougal, Washington, was on her mother’s property in Estacada, Oregon, when a neighbour’s duck attacked her without provocation, according to the suit filed in Oregon state court.
In her attempt to run away from the agitated waterfowl, Ruddell fell to the ground, breaking her right wrist and spraining an elbow and shoulder, the suit claims.
The complaint accuses the bird’s owner, Lolita Rose, of failing to maintain control of her pet or “to warn or otherwise inform neighbours of her duck’s dangerous propensity in attacking individuals”.
Hundreds of British workers have come forward to challenge Nigel Farage’s claim that only his German wife is capable of doing the job of being his assistant, an employment agency has said.
The Ukip leader was forced to defend the decision to employ his non-UK spouse at the same time as launching a poster campaign warning that unemployed Europeans were “after” people’s jobs in this country. He told the BBC “nobody else could do that job”, earning “a very modest salary for working extremely unsociable hours for me and being available up to seven days a week”.
But a fake advert for a similar role placed by the agency on its website attracted 764 applications in just 12 hours — 649 of them from UK nationals.
A red squirrel has been hailed as a supermum after giving birth to her 48th kitten in seven years.
Named Tortoiseshell, she has proved to be one of the UK’s most successful breeding red squirrels, regularly producing litters since 2008.
Along with her former partner Tweedledum, she was one half of one of the most successful breeding pairs at Pensthorpe Conservation Trust in Norfolk.
When Tweedledum died in 2012 there had been fears she would never breed again, but her later match, Bryn, proved to be the perfect partner, with their latest litter producing three new kittens.
A man used a potato to pretend he had a gun while trying to rob a business in Rhode Island.
The would-be thief reportedly entered a shop with a potato and shouted: “Give me the money.”
A police report said the store manager chased him off with a baseball bat.
Police said officers later went to a laundromat where an employee told them a man fitting the description came in carrying a potato and yelled: “I need the money.” A staff member gave him a $20 bill from a decoy till and he left.
Researchers from Uppsala University have opened a small gilded box containing the skull and bones of Swedish King Erik IX, who became a national saint after he was murdered in 1160.
The researchers also removed the king’s burial crown, which is the oldest known royal crown in Sweden, to display it to the public for the first time.
Knowledge about King Erik IX is sparse and Uppsala University said it hopes DNA tests and X-ray scans can reveal more about his origins. Some sources suggest his father may have been English. According to legend, the king was beheaded and miracles occurred after his death.
Forget Jersey Shore. A design team says New York’s East River could soon be the place for summer fun.
The developers of a massive floating swimming pool said the project is on track to launch off Brooklyn in the summer of 2016. They say the pool would be the first of its kind because it is made of filtration material designed to make dirty river water safe for swimming.
The Olympic-sized pool will be anchored to the river bed and have a walkway to shore. More than 3,000 people have contributed nearly $275,000 (€199,000) to an online campaign to keep the pool project afloat.
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