World Apart: Police chief accidentally shoots wife

USA: A US police chief reported accidentally shooting his wife early on New Year’s Day.

Georgia Bureau of Investigation spokeswoman Sherry Lang said Peachtree City police Chief William McCollom called 911 and reported he had accidentally shot his wife Margaret. She was flown to hospital where she was in a critical condition.

Mr McCollom had been placed on administrative leave until an investigation and internal review are complete. No charges have been filed.

Britain:

A mother had to be rescued by fire crews after being locked in a cupboard —by her one-year-old toddler.

Police asked Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service to attend the woman’s home in Radford Park Drive, Plymstock, Devon, after the woman managed to alert her next door neighbours.

“Crews used small tools and a triple extension ladder to gain access and release the adult from the cupboard,” a fire spokesman said.

The mother was reunited with her child.

Pea pick-me-up

Britain Those seeking a healthy January have a helping hand in the form of the high street’s first pea juice.

Following the success of the Brussels sprout smoothie, Marks & Spencer has launched peas in liquid form for people on a new year health kick or who simply like the idea of drinking the vegetable.

M&S has combined the vegetable with apple, lime and mint to aid jaded palates. Peas are high in fibre, protein, vitamins A, B6, C, and K and zinc and iron.

Second time around

USA: Elon Musk and his wife are divorcing for a second time.

The entrepreneur and his wife, Talulah Riley, issued a joint statement announcing they were splitting amicably after they remarried in July 2013. The couple has been living apart for five months while Riley writes and directs her first feature film, Scottish Mussel, in the UK.

A spokeswoman says Musk, who made his fortune co-founding PayPal and has gone on to start SpaceX and Tesla Motors, filed for divorce on New Year’s Eve and has agreed to give Riley $16m (€13.3m) in a financial settlement. The couple first wed in 2010 and divorced in 2012.

Model mayhem

Germany: It seems that sharing a hotel with 400 Russian models is not every sportsman’s idea of a good time.

German third division football team Duisburg changed the hotel booking for a winter training camp in Turkey next week after learning that the hotel they had reserved is hosting a pageant of Russian models.

Duisburg said the club wants to “prepare calmly” for matches and the original hotel might also have been overbooked.

Burning tradition

France: The Interior Ministry said 940 cars were set alight by revellers ringing in the new year —12% fewer than the 1,067 torched last year.

The figures show that, despite the dip, setting fire to parked cars remains a firmly entrenched way for some French to send out the old and ring in the new.

Ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet said numerous cars were burned around the country, particularly in the east, as well as in suburban Paris.

Wild ride

USA: An Arizona bobcat may have used up one of its nine lives after it survived getting stuck inside an oncoming car. Arizona Game and Fish Department spokeswoman Lynda Lambert said that the bobcat appears to have escaped any serious injuries and is awaiting evaluation by a veterinarian at an animal sanctuary in Scottsdale.

Officials say a couple driving in Scottsdale on Friday night hit the bobcat after it darted into their path. Upon reaching their destination, the man inspected his car and saw the very much alive animal trapped in the plastic grille.

Game and Fish employees sedated the 7lb animal and removed it. Lambert says the bobcat will be released back into the wild.

Treehouse troubles

USA: Northern California authorities are telling a Placer County couple to prune back their deluxe treehouse.

Mike and Pat Splinter’s 500sq-ft treehouse features a full kitchen, a bathroom and all the plumbing. The Animal Planet cable network highlighted the structure last month in the show “Treehouse Masters.”

But Placer County deputy planning director EJ Ivaldi tells the Sacramento Bee that the family already has a full guest cottage on their property Because of that, authorities say the treehouse’s full kitchen, and mattress, must go.

“They can use it for entertaining,” Ivaldi said. “What the county approved was a residential accessory structure. For the purpose of them being able to do a TV show, they were allowed to build a kitchen with the understanding that the kitchen would come out.”