Quirky World: Didier Deschamps says Marseille pitch a highway to hell
The turf at Marseille’s Stade Velodrome was almost a highway to hell for Didier Deschamps’s France team during their Euro 2016 match against Albania.
Players were clearly having problems getting a grip on the grass as France laboured to a last-gasp 2-0 victory.
Deschamps laid the blame with officials who allowed a rock concert to be staged there last month. He said: “It’s a disaster, but that’s not surprising. If you have an AC/DC concert a month before the European Championships — they’re changing the pitch, re-laying the turf.”
Keepers are celebrating the birth of a baby Asian elephant — named Elizabeth in honour of the Queen’s 90th birthday.
The pint-sized female, who arrived at ZSL Whipsnade Zoo in Dunstable, Bedfordshire, is already tipping the scales at a hefty 130kg. She was born to 17-year-old Karishma following a 22-month gestation period and is the 10th Asian elephant to be born at the 600-acre zoo.
The first televised lesbian kiss will be available to view for the first time since 1974.
The BBC Store is releasing Girl, starring Alison Steadman, which featured the first lesbian kiss to air on British television.
Girl is part of the Prejudice And Pride collection, released to celebrate LGBTQ festival Pride in London. It has not been available since first broadcast on BBC Two. Steadman said: “When I was offered the part I felt quite nervous. A completely new adventure. Never been offered anything like it before.
Web-based loan sharks in China have found an unconventional way of guaranteeing loans: Demanding naked photos from female borrowers.
The state-run Southern Metropolis Daily reported this week that private lenders are asking female borrowers to send nude photos of themselves along with their ID cards, warning that the photos will be made public if payments are not made on time.
A United Parcel Service driver has made an unscheduled pick-up in the San Joaquin Valley — a puppy that was dumped out of a car.
The Modesto Bee reported that the rescue happened in Stanislaus County. According to police in the small city of Hughson, the UPS driver saw a car stop on East Hatch Road, a door open and the puppy being dropped in the middle of the street.
The UPS driver quickly stopped and picked up the pup before it could dart into traffic and brought it to a Hughson police station. The delivery driver was not able to get the licence of the car.
A fawn trying to make a clean getaway got caught in some fencing instead and wound up in the bathtub of a Colorado home.
The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, which posted a photo online of the wayward fawn in a tub, said a man freed the animal from some fencing outside his home in Evergreen on Tuesday night. Instead of returning to nature, it ran through an open door in his house and into the bathroom. He told deputies that he put it in the tub before calling for help.
The sheriff’s office says deputies put the fawn in a blanket, carried it outside and set it free away from the fences. Its mom couldn’t be seen but deputies hope they were able to reunite.
