Quirky World: Israel howling over proposal to deport stray cats
An Israeli cabinet minister has drawn outrage and mockery after suggesting that the thousands of stray cats that walk the streets should be deported to another country.
The Yediot daily published what it said was a letter by agriculture minister Uri Ariel, from the Jewish Home party, proposing the idea.
It said he cited Jewish law against animal cruelty as reason not to neuter cats and a biblical commandment to populate the earth.
Opposition politician Tzipi Livni posted a picture on her Facebook page of her playing with a cat. “No way will I get a foreign passport for little one,” she wrote. Israeli animal rights activists condemned the minister.
Tillman, the English bulldog who in 2009 set a Guinness World Record as the fastest skateboarding canine and starred in videos that demonstrated his four-wheeled prowess, has died in southern California at the age of 10, his owner said.
Tillman, who suffered from an irregular heartbeat, died after lapsing into a sudden bout of laboured panting, according to his owner, Ron Davis, 46.
Davis, who lives in the coastal town of Oxnard just northwest of Los Angeles, said he rushed Tillman to a veterinary hospital and performed cardiovascular resuscitation in a failed attempt to revive his pet.
“He was my best friend, my brother and my shadow, and when it was show time, it was amazing. He made millions and millions of people smile throughout the world,” Davis said of his beloved pooch.
Tillman gained legions of fans with his appearance in a 2007 YouTube video that showed him pushing his skateboard with his paws and riding around a concrete path at a beachside park, tilting his body to steer.
The video has been seen more than 20 million times on YouTube and was featured in an early commercial for Apple iPhone to demonstrate the video-playing abilities of the device.
Recognised for his light brown coat, white face and white chest, Tillman also appeared in the Hallmark channel’s reality television series Who Let the Dogs Out.
In 2009, Tillman’s talents landed him a Guinness World Record as the fastest skateboarding dog after he rolled across 100 metres in 19.678 seconds at the X Games in Los Angeles.
Tillman’s Guinness World Record was narrowly eclipsed in 2013 by a dog named Jumpy who posted a time of 19.65 seconds.
Britain’s first fast walking lane has been introduced in Liverpool, amid calls for them to be introduced throughout the country, The Sun reported.
Research has found almost half of shoppers would back the introduction of fast walking lanes on high streets.
Some 45% of people would support the introduction of fast lanes in their town centre, with one in five saying they avoid the high street because of dawdlers.
A finalist for US national teacher of the year said she threatened to resign out of sheer frustration after being told she did not meet the “highly qualified” requirement for her new job at an Alabama school.
Ann Marie Corgill said she fired off a resignation letter out of exasperation with the “wall of bureaucracy”.
She later said she is trying to work out the issue with the school system. Ms Corgill was Alabama’s 2015 teacher of the year and a finalist for national teacher of the year for 2014-2015.
She was told she lacked credentials for her new job teaching fifth-graders at a low-income, federally funded school in Birmingham. Ms Corgill is a nationally-certified teacher but Alabama superintendent Tommy Bice says her state certification does not include fifth grade.
Some Kentucky residents who claim a whiskey warehouse is causing black fungus to grow on their homes have received a court’s permission to press their lawsuit against liquor giant Diageo.
Diageo Americas Supply distils and ages whiskey at warehouses in Louisville, resulting in tons of ethanol emissions. The lawsuit filed by Louisville residents claims those emissions cause a growth called whiskey fungus to form on nearby properties.
The plaintiffs want an injunction that would require Diageo to curb its ethanol emissions. Diageo argued that the nuisance claims were pre-empted by the federal Clean Air Act but the 6th US Circuit Court of Appeals rejected that argument.
Police have arrested a man on charges he broke into a Pennsylvania supermarket using a rope ladder — then claimed to merely be sleeping on the store’s roof when he was caught.
Thomas Beal, 48, is in the Fayette County Booking Center awaiting arraignment on burglary, criminal trespass and other charges.
Troopers say a security guard inside Peachin’s Supermarket in Dunbar Township called police when he saw Beal enter the store through an air-conditioning vent and lower himself with the ladder. He claimed to be sleeping when he was found.
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