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Your support makes all the difference.Some recent news stories that may have escaped your attention
Peacock take-away
The Yunan Animal Resource Centre in China has announced plans for a dramatic increase in its peacock breeding programme. In the next two years, its population of 400 blue peacocks will, it is hoped, be increased to 20,000. The birds are being reared for their meat, which is high in protein and low in fat. In ancient China, peacock organs were used for medicine, but the literature warns against eating the gallbladder, which is lethally poisonous.
White-lipped with fear
A white-lipped deer, a protected species found only in China, was startled to death by a helicopter flying low over Shanghai zoo, taking aerial photographs. The deer panicked and ran into a wall, killing itself. There is no evidence to suggest that the deer believed that the helicopter was carrying researchers from the Yunan Animal Resource Centre.
Marriage eastern style
People who have undergone sex-change operations may now legally be married in Singapore.
Steatopygous
Lavatory manufacturers Reckitt & Colman said that the giant pedestal in a Harpic advert could be used comfortably by a person 25ft-tall with a bottom span of six feet.
Prisoner's plea
A 32-year-old man from Brescia in northern Italy, who had been put under house arrest pending an appeal against an armed robbery conviction, telephoned the police begging them to put him in jail because, he explained, he could no longer stand his mother's nagging.
Robba banka day
Police reports from Mexico indicate that there were 19 bank robberies in the first 19 days of the year. The total for 1995 was 413 bank robberies which netted $14.4m.
Hackneyed cab message
Talking taxis have been introduced in New York to help taxi-drivers who can't speak English. Three cabs now say: "Please remember to take your property, and don't forget to ask for a receipt," after 5,457 items were left in taxis in December alone.
Gunslinger's last fight
A legal battle is being fought over the remains of John Wesley Hardin, a Wild West gunslinger currently lying in a cemetery in El Paso. His family want him to be reburied next to his first wife in Nixon, Texas, but the El Paso Pistoleros, who re-enact gunfights, want him left where he was shot dead. "The family should be allowed to call the shots," a Dallas lawyer said.
Vehicularly challenged
Police in Wellington, New Zealand, received several complaints about the erratic driving of a particular vehicle. They intercepted the car and discovered it was being driven by a man with a leg deformity, who was using his crutches to operate the pedal and brake. They said he will probably be charged with dangerous driving. He also did not have a driver's licence.
Porno fall-out
A trial at Southwark Crown Court number one was held up by the sounds of "oohs", "aahs" and groaning coming through the wall from Court Two, where the jury was watching an allegedly obscene video. An usher went through to them and requested that the television be turned down.
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