QUIRKY WORLD ... School evacuated after WWII studies go too far
Police spokesman Patrick Maierhofer says a lower and middle school were temporarily evacuated after a 14-year-old boy pulled out the grenade from his school bag.
Once at the scene, police and firefighters quickly established that the ordnance was not live and was meant for demonstration purposes.
Police say the boy, an immigrant from Romania, found it there years ago and brought it to school to show it off because his history class was focusing on the Second World War.
Thousands of earthlings descended on Capilla del Monte in Argentina for an annual international alien festival that has made the town a hotspot for UFO sightings.
The festival in Cordoba province included a parade of neon lights with Star Wars characters, an alien costume contest, and shops selling green stuffed aliens with bulging eyes next to hooded ETs from the 1982 film.
Some also attended workshops on everything extraterrestrial held near a local hill that is the site of a purported UFO sighting 30 years ago. The incident reputedly left a large burning mark on the hill’s grass.
Three-year-old Labrador retriever Heart has won the premier US dog show’s first-ever obedience competition with a crowd-pleasing, tail-wagging display of canine deportment that included fetching a few heart-print pillows.
She beat 33 other dogs at the Westminster Kennel Club event, with rivals ranging from a toy poodle to a powerful Rottweiler.
Owner and handler Linda Brennan, of Columbia, New Jersey, put Heart’s victory down to the “cute factor” and described her dog as “amazing”.
A computer glitch led to a brief price war between two gas stations in northwest Ohio, allowing some drivers to fill their tanks for pennies per gallon.
WTOL-TV reports that a computer malfunction dropped prices at one north Toledo gas station, and another across the street lowered its prices to stay competitive.
Customer Taylor Kline told the station he filled his empty tank for just 26c. The extra-low pricing lasted at least three hours before returning to normal.
Work has got under way to fell the oak trees being used to ensure traditional methods are maintained for renovations to Nelson’s flagship HMS Victory.
Three Scottish estates have donated 10 oak trees and 11 elm trees towards the 15-year conservation project on the world’s oldest commissioned warship which is berthed at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, Hampshire.
HMS Victory, which carried Nelson for his greatest and final battle at Trafalgar, was built 250 years ago from more than 5,500 oak trees and the ship inspired the royal navy’s anthem march ‘Hearts Of Oak’. Now the Aberdeenshire estates of Dunecht, Haddo, and MacRobert Trust have donated timber to continue the tradition as Victory, which was launched in 1767, enters its 250th year.
A piper who is travelling 80,000km to play 12 gigs at famous locations around the world in aid of charity has played a concert in Antarctica.
Irene Robinson, a forensic nurse practitioner, is travelling across seven continents in 50 days with the aim of raising £50,000 (€64,000) for the Royal Navy and Royal Marines Charity and Julia’s House children’s hospice.
The 57-year-old, from Poole, Dorset, started her challenge last month on board HMS Victory at Portsmouth, Hampshire, and has so far played the bagpipes at New York’s Radio City Music Hall, San Francisco’s Alcatraz, and Brazil’s Christ the Redeemer monument. Her latest performance was at Antarctica’s Paradise Bay and Neko Harbour.
A “gigantic” bird of prey which had been on the loose since the weekend has returned home.
Rex, the Steller’s sea eagle, went missing during a flying display at the Eagle Heights Wildlife Foundation (EHWF) in Eynsford, Kent, on Sunday. EHWF’s Nicky Hopkins, who described the bird as ‘’gigantic’’ with an 8ft (2.4m) wingspan, said: ‘’Rex has come back all on his own.”
