Driving lesson on runway, pilot averts crash

A Philippine plane with 80 passengers aboard was seconds away from a crash when a man teaching his girlfriend to drive sped across the runway as the aircraft landed, newspapers reported Tuesday.
The Cebu Pacific plane briefly touched down at Legazpi airport in the central Philippines Saturday but took off again as the van being driven by the couple crossed the runway, the Philippine Star newspaper said.
The man is the son of a local aviation official, who has been ordered suspended from duty.
"It could have been a disaster if not for the presence of mind of a veteran pilot," Legazpi Mayor Noel Rosal told the newspaper.
Woman accused of church theft blames Satan

A woman accused of taking more than $73,000 from the Arlington church where she was an administrative assistant blames the devil. Papers filed with a theft charge Wednesday in Snohomish County Superior Court say the 62-year-old Arlington woman told detectives "Satan had a big part in the theft."
The Everett Herald reported the woman was accused of forging the pastor's signature on 80 checks from the Arlington Free Methodist church. She was fired in February 2008.
She told detectives she used the money to cover household expenses because she couldn't stand the thought of losing her home.

A Romanian man was shocked to find a dead mouse inside a salami sausage he was eating.

The salami sausage containing a dead mouse /Sorin Cazacu
Nelu Luca, from Iasi, had eaten almost half of the vacuum-packed salami before he spotted the mouse.
He said: "I couldn't believe it. I'm always careful with what I buy but the salami looked perfectly fine from the outside. But in the middle there was a dead mouse."
Manufacturers Tabco Campofrio Romania, based in Tulcea, now face a fine of up to £1,000.
Valerian Salvastru, head of consumer protection in Iasi, said: "We took samples from the salami and sent them to the lab to see if there was a health risk. We are continuing our investigations."
Ovidiu Wencz, manager of the company which produced the salami, blamed saboteurs and believes somebody must have deliberately put the mouse in the salami mixture.
He said in the past they had found screws and nuts in their salami but solved that problem by installing magnets.

Not so tiny dancers

A professional dance company made up of only overweight performers has been launched in China.
Dance troupe members /Quirky China News
The Overweight Troupe, whose members weigh an average of nearly 20 stone, has just set out on its first national tour.
Troupe leader, Fei Fei, aka 'Chubby', says they now have 14 performers, including 10 girls and four boys, with the lightest being nearly 16st and the heaviest an amazing 35st.
"Our recruitment criterion is that your weight must be more than 100kg (15st 10lb)," she told the Henan Business Daily.
Fei Fei said she was born big, weighing 12lb 2oz, and by the time she was 11, her weight had reached more than 11st.
"I would rarely go outside because I could not bear people staring and laughing at me," she said.
She decided to set up the Overweight Troupe in Zhenzhou four months ago to make a living but also to feel part of society.
Members say they are all hugely enjoying performing - the most difficult part had been training for the stage which required them to master leg splits and flips in the air.

Twins released as court cannot tell them apart

Twin brothers arrested on suspicion of stealing £5.6m of jewellery and watches in Berlin have been released because police can't prove which one did it.
KaDeWe department store in Kurfurstendamm, Berlin /Rex
The 27-year-olds had been accused of the daring heist at Europe's largest department store - KaDeWe, reports the Daily Telegraph.
The robbers are thought to have abseiled into the shop through a skylight after scaling the side of the building.
A court statement read: "From the evidence we have, we can deduce that at least one of the brothers took part in the crime but it has not been possible to determine which one."The brothers, from Lower Saxony, were arrested two weeks after the incident, but because their genetic information is so similar, traces of DNA found at the scene of the crime did not provide conclusive evidence.
Investigations are still under way, the court said.

The perfect Mother's Day treat - no kids!

Britain's mums have revealed what they really want for Mother's Day - a day without seeing their children.
A day off without the family came joint top in a new survey which asked 500 mums what they most wanted for a Mother's Day treat.
It was the choice of 22% of those polled - although just as many said they would most like a bunch of flowers.
Other popular choices included a card (chosen by 19%), chocolate (14%) and perfume (12%), while just 11% said they wanted to spend more time with the children.
Cultural anthropologist Jean Smith commented: "I'm so pleased that mothers are finally saying it's not all about the kids.
"If they can reclaim one day for themselves every year, then they're going to be much better mothers for the other 364 days."
The survey was carried out by Cupcake, a London club for mums, mums-to-be and their families.
Cupcake founder Karen Hastings said: "Often the first thing mum's neglect is themselves so Mother's Day is the perfect opportunity for a little me-time."

Frogs marry to please rain gods

Priests married two frogs in Guwahati, northern India, in a ritual to please rain gods.
More than 2,000 wedding guests attended the ceremony as frog bride Bijuli, which means 'Thunder', and groom Barun, 'Wind', tied the knot.
The amphibians were then fed a special celebratory lunch of flies and mosquitoes.
The "wedding" was held because the region is suffering problems with chronic drought.
A spokesman for local authorities said: "The marriage went off very well.
"We hope that now the rains will finally come. The region is absolutely parched and we need rain. We didn't know what else to do."