Quirky World ... Salmond cannot boldly go where he wants

ENGLAND: Alex Salmond found himself in a bizarre stand-off with airline staff after booking a flight ticket under the name James T Kirk — the captain of Star Trek’s USS Enterprise.

The former Scottish first minister faced embarrassment when British Airways refused to let him board a flight at Heathrow under the sci-fi alias.

It took a series of phonecalls for the senior politician to persuade the airline that he should be allowed on board.

Mr Salmond says he often travels under a false name for security reasons and as a Trekkie he liked to use Captain Kirk’s name.

He said: “It was all sorted out. I just wanted BA to ’beam me up, Scotty’.” The incident took place over the summer when Mr Salmond tried to fly back to Scotland after a week at the House of Commons in London.

A source close to Mr Salmond said he had been using the name James T Kirk to travel incognito for years but since resigning as first minister last year he no longer travelled with police protection officers who could explain the ruse.

Mr Salmond has previously described himself as an “obsessive Trekkie” and the show’s fan club made him a “Starfleet officer” and gave him a “membership of distinction”.

Mammoth find in Michigan

USA: James Bristle and a friend were digging in his southern Michigan soybean field when they unearthed what looked like a bent fence post, caked with mud. Instead, it was part of a pelvis from an ancient woolly mammoth that lived up to 15,000 years ago.

A team of paleontologists from the University of Michigan and an excavator recovered about 20% of the animal’s skeleton in Washtenaw County’s Lima Township. Aside from the pelvis, they found the skull and two tusks, along with numerous vertebrae, ribs and both shoulder blades.

“We think humans were here and may have butchered and stashed the meat so that they could come back later for it,” said Daniel Fisher, the scientist who led the dig.

Mammoths and mastodons, another elephant-like creature, were common in North America before disappearing around 11,700 years ago.

Remains of about 300 mastodons and 30 mammoths have been discovered in Michigan, Fisher said..

Perp walk down the aisle

USA: A man sentenced to at least 20 years in prison in one Pennsylvania courtroom has followed that up by walking into another courtroom to marry his girlfriend.

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports 47-year-old Greg Howard was sentenced in Westmoreland County Court for robbing and assaulting an elderly woman during a home invasion.

He was allowed to wear civilian clothes instead of a prison jumpsuit. He remained shackled during a brief wedding attended by five deputies and the bride’s baby.

Cutting cheese with pork

USA: One of New Jersey’s top pork roll makers is being sued by the wife of an employee who she says was fired for passing too much gas in the office. Louann Clem says in the lawsuit that her husband suffered serious consequences from gastric bypass surgery. Those included extreme gas and uncontrollable diarrhoea.

The lawsuit alleges that Case Pork Roll Co President Thomas Dolan complained about the side effects and told Rich Clem to work from home because he made the office smell. His wife also worked there.

But owner Tom Grieb says neither of them was fired. He says business wasn’t good and they didn’t want to take a pay cut and walked out.

The lawsuit seeks unspecified punitive and compensatory damages.