Cat grows wings

A Chinese woman claims her cat has grown wings.

Granny Feng's tom cat has sprouted two hairy 4ins long wings, reports the Huashang News.

"At first, they were just two bumps, but they started to grow quickly, and after a month there were two wings," she said.

Feng, of Xianyang city, Shaanxi province, says the wings, which contain bones, make her pet look like a 'cat angel'.
Her explanation is that the cat sprouted the wings after being sexually harassed.

"A month ago, many female cats in heat came to harass him, and then the wings started to grow," she said.

However, experts say the phenomenon is more likely down to a gene mutation, and say it shouldn't prevent the cat living a normal life.

Blind Pilot Flies From London to Sydney

SYDNEY, Australia (AP) - A blind British adventurer touched down in Sydney Monday to end an epic 13,500-mile flight by microlight aircraft from London.

Miles Hilton-Barber braved snowstorms, freezing temperatures and torrential downpours during his 59-day journey under the supervision of sighted co-pilot Richard Meredith-Hardy.

"It's the fulfillment of an amazing dream," Hilton-Barber, 58, told reporters at Sydney's Bankstown airport. "I've wanted to be a pilot since I was a kid. Now I'm totally blind and I've had the privilege of flying more than halfway around the world."

Hilton-Barber, who lost his eyesight to a hereditary condition about 20 years ago, is hoping the trip will raise $2 million for the charity Seeing is Believing, which works for the prevention of blindness in developing countries.


He took to the skies from Biggin Hill air base in south London on March 7 in a microlight aircraft, which looks like a cross between a tricycle and a motorized hang-glider, with the aid of an audio device that reads out navigational information such as air speed and altitude.

Hilton-Barber also has conquered Mount Kilimanjaro and Mont Blanc, run marathons in the Sahara and Gobi deserts, and even attempted to reach the South Pole, hauling a sledge over 250 miles of Antarctic ice.

Underage man tries to buy beer with prison ID

A 20-year-old Gardnerville man who unsuccessfully tried to buy beer with a prison identification card is set for a hearing June 6 on charges he resisted arrest.

Ross Perusse, who appeared in court Wednesday in a sling, was arrested April 14 in Johnson Lane after he reportedly tried to purchase alcohol with an identification card from his recent incarceration in Nevada State Prison.

According to court documents, deputies were called to the store in Johnson Lane early April 14 on a report of people loitering in the parking lot.

A store clerk said a 20-year-old, identified as Perusse, was trying to buy alcohol.

She said she refused to sell it because he was underage and didn't have enough money.

As deputies arrived, the crowd dispersed and officers followed a vehicle on Downs Drive with a broken headlight.

The car stopped, but Perusse reportedly fled on foot, ignoring officers' commands to stop.

The officer said he drew his weapon when he saw Perusse reportedly pull a silver object from his pants pocket which turned out to be a cell phone.

The officer holstered his weapon.

He chased Perusse and said the suspect turned and lunged at him so the deputy struck him on the left arm using a "forward spinning strike" with his baton.

Perusse then reportedly tried to grab the baton, so the officer struck him on the left hand, fracturing the suspect's left middle finger.

Perusse was sentenced in August to three years in Nevada State Prison after he was kicked out of a regimental discipline program for fighting with another inmate.

He was arrested in 2005 for stealing a truck. While awaiting sentencing, Perusse was convicted last year of beating up a Douglas High School student whom he accused of being anti-Semitic.

Perusse reportedly told the deputy who arrested him April 14 that he ran because he just got out of prison and was on parole.

He is being held in Douglas County Jail on $25,500 bail.

-- East Fork Justice Jim EnEarl agreed Wednesday to defer sentencing for one year for an 18-year-old Minden man who has been accepted by Western Nevada Regional Drug Court.

If he is successful, Frederick Dudley will be allowed to withdraw a guilty plea on misdemeanor possession of stolen property.

He was arrested after a passport, car titles and wills were found in his bedroom.

Dudley claimed he was asked to hold the items for a friend and didn't know they were stolen.

-- A deputy investigating a report of an ex-felon in possession of firearms discovered he'd sold one of the weapons to suspect under a different name.

Steven Gingerich, 47, is set for a hearing on May 9.

He was arrested at a residence in Round Hill where he was living without the owner's permission.

Gingerich had been hired to work on the house and was allowed to live there briefly. The owner, who lives in Foster City, Calif., said he ordered Gingerich off the property, but discovered he was still at the residence.

Gingerich had convicted of robbery in California and forbidden to own firearms.

Acting on a tip, members of the Douglas County Sheriff's Office Street Enforcement Team found five weapons at the residence including an assault rifle, two shotguns and two handguns.

The investigating deputy discovered that he'd sold one of the handguns to Gingerich in 2004, but the suspect used the name "Gingreich."

Judge: 'What's a website?'

A judge trying an internet terror case stunned a court by reportedly admitting he didn't know what a website was.

Judge Peter Openshaw brought a halt to the trial as a witness was being quizzed about an extremist web forum.

He told prosecutors at Woolwich Crown Court: "The trouble is I don't understand the language. I don't really understand what a website is."

Later he said he hoped a computer expert would give "simple" evidence when called to the stand.

Judge Openshaw said: "Will you ask him to keep it simple? We've got to start from basics."

But the Judicial Communications Office later released a statement insisting Judge Openshaw was "entirely computer literate".

It said the judge's comments, in the fifth week of a trial largely based on computer generated evidence, had been taken out of context.

He had been simply clarifying the evidence presented, in an easily understandable form, for all those in court.

"Mr Justice Openshaw is entirely computer literate and indeed has taken notes on his own computer in court for many years," the statement said.

How astronauts deal with "natural functions" in space?

tour of a space facility in the US apparently prompted Prince Philip to ask how astronauts deal with "natural functions" in space. So how exactly do they go to the toilet?

It's all to do with air flow. On earth, in the West at least, your standard toilet is a water-flush affair, that takes waste and washes it down a pipe.

Space toilets use air flow as water flushes have drawbacks in zero gravity.

Adult nappies are used on space walks and during take-off and landing .

The lack of gravity on the shuttle and the space station mean a water-flush system is not an option. You don't need a particularly vivid imagination to see the potential problems.

Instead, on the shuttle, urine and faeces are carried away by rapid flow of air.

The unisex toilet resembles a conventional loo, but with straps over the feet and bars over the thighs to make sure that the astronauts don't drift off mid-go. The seat is designed so the astronaut's bottom can be perfectly flush to make a good seal.

The good news for fans of convenience is that, on the shuttle at least, urinating standing up is possible. A funnel-on-a-hose contraption is included so that astronauts - both male and female - can urinate standing up. Or sitting down if they prefer. They just attach it to the toilet using a pivoting bracket.

The system separates solid and liquid waste. Solids are compressed and remain on-board to be unloaded after landing. Liquids are released into space. Nasa hopes one day to recycle waste productively.

Researchers at the University of Guelph in Canada have said such recycling will be key to tackling any future mission to Mars in order to feed the astronauts.

The air used in the space shuttle's toilet system has to be filtered to get rid of the smell and bacteria before it is returned to the living area.

On the International Space Station, the fundamental principle is similar. The fan-powered air-flow toilet system stores waste. Urine is sucked up and stored in 20 litre containers which are dumped into the Progress resupply craft. The ship is later ejected into the atmosphere, where it burns up , BBC reports.

For solid waste, a plastic bag covered in holes is placed inside the toilet. Air is sucked through the holes so everything ends up in the bag. The elasticised top closes and the bag is pushed into a metal container. A new bag is popped in for the next visitor. Again the waste heads off to Progress.

Geese steal cell phone from student

Sam Rozati, 23, was attacked by four geese as he walked past their nest.

They pecked so hard he dropped his phone.

Then one bird grabbed the mobile and disappeared into the undergrowth in Colchester, Essex.

Final-year law student Sam said: “They flew over and started biting my hand until I dropped the phone. I had to move away for my safety.”

His attempts to find his phone have failed — as it is set on silent, the Sun reports.

He said: “I’d never been mugged by anyone before, but now I’ve been mugged by geese.

“I go the long way round to go home now.”

Shoplifters ordered to wear sign ‘I am a thief’

ATTALLA, Ala. - Shoppers entering the Wal-Mart Supercenter here got a reminder not to try anything funny: Two shoplifters stood outside with signs reading “I am a thief, I stole from Wal-Mart.”

Attalla City Judge Kenneth Robertson Jr. ordered the two people to wear the signs for four hours each during two successive Saturdays.

“The only comments we’ve heard so far have been positive,” said store manager Neil Hawkins. “Most of them thought it was a good thing.”

Father gets 3 strippers for sons 16 Bday party

A 45-year-old man has appeared in a South African court for allegedly arranging three strippers for his son's 16th birthday party attended by up to 20 teenagers, Beeld reported on Thursday.

Prosecutors claim the teenagers were drinking alcohol at the celebrations at the boy's parental home in March, and that minors were allowed to touch the strippers, who were apparently completely naked at one stage.

The businessman, facing charges under sexual offences legislation, handed himself over to police and appeared in court in Middelburg in Mpumalanga on Wednesday.


The strippers, in their twenties and thirties, and a 26-year-old man from Pretoria who apparently helped organise the party, have all appeared in court and are out on bail.

The father also faces charges of illegally possessing explosives allegedly found at his home during police investigations.

Church sex victims win $11M

A young man and woman raped by a Catholic youth minister when they were teenagers yesterday won $11.4 million dollars in damages from the Diocese of Rockville Centre.

The award, one of the largest involving abuse at the hands of church laity, came after a three-week trial and a week of deliberations.

The six-person jury found that the diocese - the sixth-largest in the U.S. - was negligent in hiring and keeping former youth minister Matthew Maiello.

Maiello pleaded guilty to third-degree rape and sodomy in 2003, admitting he abused four youngsters, and served more than two years in prison.

The victims in the suit - both now 23 - said they were molested by Maiello starting at age 15 and church officials did nothing when told about it.

Guns don’t shoot people — bullets do

LAKE LUZERNE, N.Y. - A young man shot himself Saturday without using a gun.

Damion M. Mosher, 18, had been discharging .223-caliber rounds, placing them in a steel vise, putting a screwdriver on the primer, and striking the screwdriver with the hammer, deputies said. They were called to his home in Lake Luzerne shortly after 5 p.m. Saturday when one bullet went about a half-inch into his abdomen. He was treated at Glens Falls Hospital and was released. No charges were filed.

Mosher told authorities he was trying to empty the rounds to collect the brass casings for scrap.

Home buyer finds mummified body

MADRID, Spain - A man making his first visit to a home he bought in a foreclosure auction found the former owner's mummified body sitting on the living room couch, police said Tuesday.

Coroners estimate the woman's remains had been there since 2001, when she stopped making payments on the residence in the coastal town of Roses in Spain's northeast Catalonia region.

The body mummified instead of rotting partly because of the salty seaside air in Roses, a Catalan regional police official said, speaking on customary condition of anonymity.

Lottery refuses to pay winning prize

OCALA, Fla. - The Florida Lottery is refusing to pay a $500,000 prize until it can inspect the $20 scratch-off ticket, which officials said Thursday appears to be a misprint.

Joe Curcio, 56, says he got the ticket at a service plaza Sunday on Florida's Turnpike.

The Gold Rush ticket has the numeral 1 on the top row and a numeral 1 above the $500,000 scratch-off piece, making the ticket appear to be a winner. But when Curcio had it scanned, the ticket's bar code indicated it wasn't.

A few short and funny news

Car Phone

A woman was reporting her car as stolen, and mentioned
that there was a car phone in it. The policeman taking
the report called the phone and told the guy that answered
that he had read the ad in the newspaper and wanted to buy
the car. They arranged to meet, and the thief was arrested.

Put Your Foot In Your Mouth

Employed by the human-development center of a corporation in the
midwest, my friend trains employees in proper dress codes and etiquette.

One day as she was stepping onto the elevator, a man casually dressed in
jeans and a golf shirt got on with her.

Thinking of her responsibilities, she scolded, "Dressed a little
casually today, aren't we?"

The man replied, "That's one benefit of owning the company..."

Oil Change

45 year-old Amy Brasher was arrested in San Antonio, Texas,
after a mechanic reported to police that 18 packages of
marijuana were packed in the engine compartment of the car
which she had brought to the mechanic for an oil change.
According to police, Brasher later said that she didn't
realize that the mechanic would have to raise the hood to
change the oil.

The Lottery

Californian Bill Helko was thrilled when he had the winning numbers
in the local lottery, the first prize being $412,000.

He straight away went and ordered a Porsche, booked a family holiday
in Hawaii and had a champagne dinner with his wife and friends at an
expensive Hollywood restaurant.

When he went to pick up the winnings he found that 9,097 others had
also won first prize and his share of the jackpot was $45.

The Perfect Scam - Australia

Australian Police have been unable to recommend a prosecution for the following scam:

A company takes out a newspaper advertisement claiming to be able to supply imported hard core pornographic videos. As their prices seem reasonable, people place orders and make payments via check.

After several weeks, the company writes back explaining that under the present law they are unable to supply the materials and do not wish to be prosecuted. So they return their customers' money in the form of a company check.

However, due to the name of the company, few people will present
these checks to their banks. The name of the company:
"The Anal Sex and Fetish Perversion Company."

Thief Caught While Counting Loot

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) - A thief rejoiced too early and was caught red-handed while counting his loot not far from the place where he had snatched a woman's handbag.

The thief was emptying the stolen handbag by the roadside in Kuantan city in eastern Malaysian when his victim caught him with the help of bystanders, The Star newspaper reported Friday. It didn't say when the incident happened.

The thief had walked into the victim's office and grabbed her handbag, containing close to $88 and a cell phone, The Star said.

It said the woman chased after him but failed to catch him. She was then heading to the police station with a colleague on a motorcycle when she saw the man by the roadside behind two parked trucks, emptying her purse.

On seeing the woman shouting at him, the thief threw away the bag and tried to flee. But several truck drivers, who were resting there, managed to catch him, The Star said.

The police officer responsible for the case was not available for comment, a police spokeswoman in Kuantan said.

Baby obtains a gun legally

A 10-months-old boy has successfully obtained a gun licence in the US state of Illinois.

Bubba Ludwig's father, Howard, applied on his behalf after his grandfather gave him a shotgun as an heirloom.

Mr Ludwig said he had not expected to succeed, but he filled in the online form, paid $5 and the licence was his.

The licence includes a picture of a toothless Bubba and a squiggle that represents his best attempt at a signature.

Illinois gun laws are said to be among the strictest in the US. But Illinois State Police, who oversee the application process, said that they had followed the law in this case.

Mr Ludwig said Bubba's gun would likely remain at his grandfather's house until he was 14.

"I'm not about to approve any unsupervised hunting or trap shooting for Bubba," he said. "Still, I'm glad he was able to get his FOID card. It makes an adorable addition to his baby book."

Granny grows horn

A Chinese grandmother has a five inch horn growing out of her forehead.

The horn curves downward and looks like the stalk of a pumpkin, reports the Yangcheng Evening Post.

Granny Zhao, 95, of Zhanjiang city, Guangdong province, says it first appeared three years ago.

"At first, it was only a mole, but it gradually grew and became like a horn," she said.

Zhao says the horn causes her little trouble except to affect her vision slightly: "It causes me no discomfort, but blocks part of my view."

But her family are hoping that medical experts can explain the phenomenon.

Online poker: skill or luck?

Online poker has become very popular today. It has been partly responsible for a dramatic increase in the number of poker players worldwide. For the year of 2005 revenues from online poker were estimated at US$ 200 million per month.

A lot of people around the world love this game however nobody can tell for sure whether it is skill or chance. That’s why a court in East London is to decide this week whether poker is a game of skill, chance or a combination of both.

A jury has been asked to weigh up the role played by Lady Luck in the world's most popular card game, after police accused a club owner of illegally hosting a poker session and levying winnings and stakes without a license.

Britain's Gambling Act states that a license is needed for hosting a game of chance but not those of skill, like chess.

Derek Kelly, owner of the Gutshot private club in central London, has been accused of breaking the law on two occasions - December, 2004 and January, 2005. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

In theory the judgment, expected on Tuesday or Wednesday at Snaresbrook Crown Court, could have repercussions for poker clubs across Britain , which claim booming membership. Gutshot says it has around 23,000 members.

Britain's online gaming sector is already in upheaval, after the United States effectively banned online gambling last year in a move that wiped billions of pounds (dollars) off the value of Internet gaming companies.

Britain opposes the U.S. ban, but has said it would not protect British gaming executives from U.S. extradition requests if they took bets from countries where they were illegal, Reuters reports.

Last week the prosecution's lawyer, Graham Trembath, said the jury would have to decide whether poker was a game of skill, or luck, or both.

The fact that the pack of cards was shuffled before a game introduced a significant element of chance, he added.

If the jurors decide poker is a game of chance alone or a mixture of chance and skill, then the jury should find Kelly guilty, the prosecution said.

On its Web site, the country's Gambling Commission that regulates the sector in Britain, states:

"Whilst there are different levels of skill amongst poker players, the Gaming Act makes clear that even games of skill and chance combined are games of chance."

But Gutshot argues there is a significant element of skill in poker, and that the game is being unfairly singled out under the law. They say golf, even chess, is partly down to chance.

Barry Martin, chief executive of Gutshot who has been at the trial, wants the law to differentiate between casino games like roulette and poker.

"We say there are no games in the world, not one, that are pure skill," he told Reuters. "Chess has some form of chance.

"Poker is on trial here. We are saying poker should be moved into the 21st century and should be allowed to be played outside the hard gaming area of casinos."

Russia’s ex-president Boris Yeltsin loses 40-million-dollar land

Ex-President of Russia, Boris Yeltsin, lost his documents confirming his property rights for two elite plots of land in the Moscow region. The four-hectare land is evaluated at about 40 million dollars.

Most likely, the loss took place last year. However, Yeltsin noticed the absence of the documents only several days ago. Yeltsin asked his former assistant, Alexander Moskovin, to report the loss to the police. The official told the police that the documents for the property had been lost under unknown circumstances.

The disappearance of such important documents may lead to lamentable consequences for the family of Russia’s first president. If the documents have been stolen, perpetrators may successfully sell the land to someone else, the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper wrote. The problem can definitely be solved at court, but the process may take a very long period of time that will bring nothing but a nerve-racking experience to Boris Yeltsin.

Young woman grows nipple on her foot

A 22-year-old woman sought medical care for a lesion in the plantar region of her left foot, a well-formed nipple surrounded by areola and hair. Microscopic examination of the dermis showed hair follicles, eccrine glands, and sebaceous glands. Fat tissue was noted at the base of the lesion. Clinical and histopathologic findings were consistent with the diagnosis of supernumerary breast tissue, also known as pseudomamma. To our knowledge, this is the first report of supernumerary breast tissue on the foot.


These supernumerary breasts can pop up all over the place, including the face, back, and thigh (and foot, obviously). They can be functionally complete, and can even lactate. The authors report some weak and sometimes contradicted associations with other oddities, but no causal mechanism is known. These cases of autonomous self-organization and recruitment of organs are extremely interesting—it suggests that a breast would be a fairly easy tissue to grow in a dish.

170 drunk Russian soldiers launch massive fight

About 170 drunk Russian soldiers started a huge fight in the train travelling from Chita to Chelyabinsk (Russian cities). As a result all windows in two cars have been smashed. The amount of injured people has not been reported, officials said.

The fight involving 170 drunk soldiers reportedly began on Tuesday at 12:57 p.m. The Internal Affairs Ministry of the Buratia republic sent 250 policemen to the city of Ulan-Ude, the nearest railway station, to calm down the crowd of drunk hooligans.

During the police operation 21 drunk soldiers were arrested. Other participants of the massive fight were allowed to continue their trip to Chelyabinsk.

Seven-year-old girl finds condom in a Happy Meal

A seven-year-old New Zealand girl was given a condom in a gift that came with a so-called "Happy Meal" at a Wellington McDonald's outlet, a newspaper reported on Thursday.

"I was pretty horrified, really," grandfather Rowan Hatch told the Dominion Post after he had found the condom in its unopened plastic wrapper inside a small sports bag that came with a meal he bought for Maia Whitaker.

"The fact my granddaughter was going to look in the bag and find this thing - it was going to be difficult to explain, really. She's only seven."

The restaurant manager swapped the bag for a pencil case, and a McDonald's spokesperson said the incident was being investigated, the AP reports.

Paris Hilton enlarged her breasts?

Paris Hilton looks a bit busty today and there are a lot of speculation on whether she has enlarged her boobs or not.
Fortunately not long ago Paris Hilton had the perfect way to vouch for the natural size of her boobs - she flashed them at pals.

As difficult as that might be to believe of the shy and retiring star, Paris is said to have found this settles the surgery rumors once and for all, the Sun reports.
A friend said: "One night she got so fed up with the girls talking about her in the ladies room of an LA club that she pulled open her top and showed the lot of them that she's hiding nothing but a very expensive bra."