An 84-year-old Polish farmer who had never been further than the next-door village snuck off to London to follow his dreams,but his plans of a new life there didn't last long.Without a word to his family,Ludwick Zon donned his Sunday best and rode off to the British capital.
Worried officials who found him wandering around Heathrow airport got the Polish consulate to take care of him.It arranged his passage home,to his chagrin."It's too bad I wasn't allowed to stay longer,because the people there have a wonderful life.I thought I might look about for a job.Here in poland a person hasn't got a future,"the pensioner said.-Reuters
Originally posted by windmill An 84-year-old Polish farmer who had never been further than the next-door village snuck off to London to follow his dreams,but his plans of a new life there didn't last long.Without a word to his family,Ludwick Zon donned his Sunday best and rode off to the British capital. ...[text shortened]... look about for a job.Here in poland a person hasn't got a future,"the pensioner said.-Reuters
Two things:
I learned a new word: chagrin (thank you for that - no doubt it shall come in handy some day), and Poland is a very religious country.
STARS MAY seem like a harmless symbol of Christmas goodwill-but in eastern Europe,if they're red,they may be anything but.
Hungarian shopper Istvan Hamza made a formal complaint to police that the star decorations in a record shop in the town of Szombathely were too much like the communist red star-banned by law as a symbol of decades of dictatorship.
But the police let Christmas charity prevail.
"The shop's red stars are an irregular shape and their branches are not pointed but rounded,so they do not meet the specification set out in the law,"spokesman Peter Kovacs said,according to the local news agency MTI.-Reuters
A WOMAN who police thought purposely swallowed her cell phone during an argument with her boyfriend last week was likely assaulted,Blue Springs,Missouri,police said.
The bizarre incident that sent the woman,24,to the hospital is now being investigated as an assault and police have a suspect,Sergent Allen Kintz said.
"It appears she didn't voluntarily swallow this phone,"Kintz said.Early on Friday police responded to a call from a man who said his girlfriend was having trouble breathing.Police arrived to find a woman with a phone lodged in her throat.They were told the boyfriend wanted the phone and the woman swallowed it so he couldn't get it.Police have not made an arrest and would not say if the boyfriend is suspected of assaulting the woman.-AP
PROSECUTERS charged a Kansas City man with forcing a cell phone down his ex-girlfriends throat last week,requiring emergency surgery to remove it.
Marlon Brandon Gill,23,was charged on yesterday with first-degree assault-a felony-in a case initially considered an oddity when it was reported that Melinda Abell had swallowed the cell phone herself during an arguement with her boyfriend.
Jackson County Prosecuter Michael Sanders said that police were searching for Gill.
Abell told detectives that Gill,her ex-boyfriend,forced her from her house in the Kansas City suburb of Blue Springs early Friday morning and made her go with him in his vehicle,court documents show.While on the road,Gill shoved the cell phone into her mouth untill it became lodged in her throat.-AP
THE UNLIKELY couple of a baby Kenyan hippo and a 130-year-old tortoise were still together,a year after the hippo was separated from its family by the Indian Ocean tsunami.
The relationship between Owen,the two-year-old hippopotamus,and Mzee,the giant tortoise,surprised conservation workers and made international headlines.Owen was living with his family on the Sabaki River when massive waves from the Indian Ocean tsunami reached the East African coast.He was washed into the ocean and stranded on a reef.
Residents of Malindi,a small coastal town,used fishing nets to catch him.He was taken to the Haller Park sanctuary,where he met Mzee and adopted him as a surrogate parent.
The tortoise at first resisted.But the persistent Owen kept following him around the park,into the pool and trying to sleep next to him.
Mzee relented after several days.As the bond grew,the tortoise even returned signs of affection.They are now in separable. - AP
Originally posted by windmill THE UNLIKELY couple of a baby Kenyan hippo and a 130-year-old tortoise were still together,a year after the hippo was separated from its family by the Indian Ocean tsunami.
The relationship between Owen,the two-year-old hippopotamus,and Mzee,the giant tortoise,surprised conservation workers and made internationa ...[text shortened]... s.As the bond grew,the tortoise even returned signs of affection.They are now in separable. - AP
LONDON.-A British man who tried to sue the local council after soiling his own trousers has made it on to a list of the most spurious compensation claims.The man blamed the embarrasing accident on the council's decision to close a public lavatory at the bus station,and claimed he was owed a new pair of trousers.The bizarre claim was among thousands of public liability claims which cost local government and insurance firms an estimated stg250 million($NZ640.8 million) per year.
Leading public sector insurer Zurich Municipal said many claimants are genuine but exaggerated and spurious claims are an increasing problem.The firm compiled a list of other ludicrous and dubious claims.It includes a man who claimed to have slipped on steps owned by a housing association.In fact,he had jumped out of his window to avoid being caught with another woman when his girlfriend returned home unexpectedly.-PA
Originally posted by windmill LONDON.-A British man who tried to sue the local council after soiling his own trousers has made it on to a list of the most spurious compensation claims.The man blamed the embarrasing accident on the council's decision to close a public lavatory at the bus station,and claimed he was owed a new pair of trousers.The bizarre claim was among thousands of publi ...[text shortened]... dow to avoid being caught with another woman when his girlfriend returned home unexpectedly.-PA
POLICE IN a Vancouver,British Columbia,suburb reminded residents on yesterday it was not a good idea to play with a loaded gun while using the bathroom,after a man accidentally shot himself.
A 21-year-old North Vancouver man was facing numerous weapons charges after he shot off one of his fingers while apparently playing with a gun on New Year's Day,according to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
"Perhaps our mothers never explained to us that it was not a good idea to play with handguns whilst using the restroom.But,then again,maybey that was supposed to be given,"the Mounties said in a press release.-Reuters
IN A RULING that could elate local teens,a judge declared this week that "mooning",the practice of bearing one's backside,is legal in the state of Maryland.
Mooning is popular among teenagers travelling in cars,but the case in question involved a 44-year-old man who"mooned" his neighbour and her eight-year-old daughter.The neighbour brought the complaint.
"If exposure of half of the buttock constituted indecent exposure,any woman wearing a thong at the beach at Ocean City would be guilty,"said Judge John W DebeliusIII.
Though he called the practice "disgusting,"mooning did not constitute indecent exposure,the judge ruled.However,he indicated,the trial might have ended differently had the defendant been on trial for"being a jerk."-DPA
Odd Spot.
19 Dec '05 08:16
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