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Strange News From Around the World
Ex-prisoner buys back his old cell:
"A former prisoner liked his old cell at Melbourne's Pentridge prison so much that he is buying it back. Graeme Alford, who spent several years in the former Pentridge prison at Coburg, in Melbourne's north, after being convicted of embezzlement and later armed robbery in the 1970s, will buy cell number 43 in the jail's old D Division. The former prison is being redeveloped into a residential and commercial complex. Mr Alford's cell, which is in the same section where Ronald Ryan became the last man hanged in Australia, is in a part of the former prison which will be redeveloped into a wine block that will eventually house $50 million worth of rare wines."
Rescued dog saves a life:
"A neglected doberman adopted by a loving family last week has saved their toddler from being bitten by a deadly king brown snake. Seventeen-month-old Charlotte Svilicic was playing in the garden of the family's Atherton home on Monday when Khan the doberman grabbed her by the back of the nappy and threw her clear of the approaching snake. The heroic pooch was bitten by the snake after saving the toddler but is recovering after a dose of anti-venom."
Cops get ground-shaking sirens:
"A US police department has launched the ultimate siren to make sure everyone knows officers need room to drive, the ground-shaking "Rumbler". Patrol cars in Washington DC are currently being fitted out with the high-tech siren, which projects soundwaves inaudible to humans but powerful enough to shake everything around the vehicle. One of the officers using the new siren, Lou Schneider, told The Washington Post that the new gadget attracted a lot of attention. "You know when this is coming up behind you," Officer Schneider said. "It vibrates everything." According to the newspaper, the Rumbler consists of two subwoofers and an amplifier that pumps out soundwaves that people can feel from up to 60m away. Police officials told The Post that they expect members of the public to be startled when a cop car drives by with its sirens blazing and the ground it touches shaking. Several other police departments in the US are testing the new sirens, including in New York."
Danger - do not feed the ducks!:
"Families have been banned from feeding ducks on a village pond - because council chiefs say it's too risky. Councillors fear toxins in the birds' droppings might harm children, and claim left-over bread causes pollution and attracts rats. They also say additives in bread are bad for the digestive systems of the pond's nine mallards, reports The Sun. Officials have put up a notice banning duck feeding at the 400-year-old pond in Oakley, near Basingstoke, Hants. But grandmother-of-five Hilary Box, 75, who lives opposite, said: "Feeding ducks is part of the English way of life. It's wonderful to see families gathered around the pond - there's no danger. "People like me have existed without this protection. We have the healthiest ducks in the world. Bread doesn't appear to have done them any harm." Oakley and Deane Parish Council chairman John Strawbridge said: "We don't want to be killjoys. But feeding the ducks puts a strain on the pond's entire eco-system."
You Can't Get Diesel From A Stone:
"When Nomatter Tagarira, a spirit medium, claimed that she could conjure refined diesel out of a rock by striking it with her staff, ministers in Robert Mugabe's Government believed that they might have found the solution to Zimbabwe's perennial fuel shortage. After witnessing her apparently miraculous gift they gave her five billion Zimbabwean dollars in cash (worth 1.7 million pounds at the start of the year but now worth one seven-hundredth of that) in return for the fuel. Ms Tagarira was also given a farm, said to have been seized from its white owner during Mr Mugabe's lawless land grab, as well as food and services that included a round-the-clock armed guard on the rock in the district of Chinhoyi 60 miles (100km) from Harare, the capital. More than a year later officials realised they had been duped. Ms Tagarira is now in custody, awaiting trial on charges of fraud... The money was paid after a high-level task force of ranking officials and members of the security services investigated and proclaimed the rock to be the real deal. And it was the real deal - sort of. A hidden fuel tank delivered the oil when the spirit medium made a signal with her stick."
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