Swan rescued after beak freezes shut

China – Chinese officials came to the rescue of a swan who dozed off near a river and awoke to find her beak frozen shut.

A shocked couple discovered the swan while feeding ducks near the Peacock River in Korla.

“My wife and I had been having a coffee in one of the riverside cafes when we decided to take a stroll along the river and feed the ducks,” Yong Hsieh told CEN. “As we walked towards them, we saw the swan, but as we got closer, we noticed its beak was covered with ice.”

Yong, 27, said he and his wife tossed some bread into the water, “But the swan couldn’t even open its beak.” More

Knitting needle removed from puppy’s heart

North Carolina – Veterinarians in North Carolina said they were able to successfully a knitting needle that pierced the heart of a 17-week-old papillon puppy.

Dr. Jennifer Myers, a veterinary cardiologist at Triangle Veterinary Referral Hospital in Durham, said Tutti the 10-pound puppy’s owners brought her in on New Year’s Eve with the needle protruding from her chest.

They said the dog had fallen onto the object at their Durham home.

Dr. Myers said X-ray and ultrasound images showed the needle had pierced Tutti’s heart. More

Man Caught Trying To Smuggle 94 iPhones Strapped To His Body Into China

China – Turns out, iPhones are expensive in China.

Expensive enough to inspire people into strapping dozens of the things to themselves in sheets of plastic armour and trying to make it through customs.

These photos have emerged on a Chinese social media site of a man who reportedly tried to go through Futian Port in China with 94 iPhones strapped to his body.

The man was apparently identified only by his gait – he had a ” “weird walking posture, joint stiffness, muscle tension” and — when forced through a metal detector — tons and tons of Apple hardware around his waist. More

Woman, 73, attacked by a rabid raccoon as she petted it thinking it was her cat

Massachusetts - A 73-year-old woman was dozing in her bed when she reached out to stroke what she thought was her beloved pet cat only to discover it was a rabid raccoon.

The wild creature had climbed onto Ginny Ballou's face as she slept, before launching a vicious attack that left her covered with gashes and puncture wounds.

It had managed to sneak in through the door meant for pet cat Pretty Boy at the house in Hingham, Mass.

'She had been sleeping on her bed and she thought it was a cat and she went to pet it and found out it was a raccoon,' Sgt. Steven Dearth of the Hingham Police Department told ABC News. More

Woman booted from a US Airways flight – her pig on a leash was stinking up the cabin

Connecticut  - A woman was booted from a US Airways flight in Connecticut because her pet pig was pacing around and stinking up the cabin, passengers said on Friday.

Other travelers saw the woman with a dark-colored duffle bag over her shoulder, when she boarded the plane on Wednesday, they said.

But it turned out to be a 70-pound pot-bellied pig, which became “disruptive” before the plane took off, a spokesman for the airline told ABC News.

“Turns out, it wasn’t a duffel bag. We could smell it — and it was a pig on a leash,” passenger Jonathan Skolnik, a professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, told ABC. More

Elderly Woman Saved By Rottweilers

UK – A shivering woman who was stuck in a field for more than 15 hours was saved by a family of Rottweilers..

The 80-year-old woman was trapped in a bush on a school playing field after losing her footing. She was in danger of being stranded all night when David Malt took his four giant Rottweilers for a late stroll.

As soon as he let them off their lead they made a beeline for the spot where the woman was lying. David suspected they had found something and went to investigate.

He found Tillie, Billy, Gerrard and May sat with the elderly lady, with one of the gentle giants licking her. More

Circus dyed two chow-chow dogs’ hair to pass them off as pandas

Italy – The owner of an Italian travelling circus has been charged with the use of false documents after it was discovered that two pandas in his show were, in fact, chow chow puppies that had been dyed.

A spokeswoman for the forestry corps, which in Italy deals with many of the offences involving animals, said audience members were encouraged to pay to have their photograph taken with the fake pandas.

“It happened regularly before the start of the show,” she said.

The circus was visiting Brescia near Milan when the ruse was uncovered. Forest rangers, including members of the corps’ investigative unit, raided the circus accompanied by vets. More

Robot newsreader unveiled in Japan

Japan – Scientists have unveiled what they claim is the first newsreading android – with a sense of humour to match her language skills.

The adolescent-looking “Kodomoroid” – an amalgamation of the Japanese word “kodomo” (child) and “android” – delivered news of an earthquake and an FBI raid to reporters in Tokyo.

She even poked fun at her creator, telling robotics professor Hiroshi Ishiguro: “You’re starting to look like a robot!”

As the line between humans and machines continued to blur, Ishiguro’s mechanical newscaster performed tongue-twisters, to the amazement of their human counterparts. More

Police call in bomb expert to ‘defuse’ toy lightsaber

Alaska – A plastic toy lightsaber discarded on a road in Alaska caused a bomb scare, prompting local police to dispatch a bomb expert.

An unidentified Juneau resident became suspicious of an object on the side of the road.

Rather than call 911, the concerned citizen phoned the Juneau Police Department’s business line to report the mystery.

Not taking any chances, a member of the force with formal Explosive Ordnance Disposal training was dispatched, and quickly realized he was sent to contain a plastic Star Wars toy. More

Dog sneaks onto ambulance to be close to owner

Texas – Without the drivers knowing, a dog hitched a ride on the outside of an ambulance to accompany his owner to a hospital in Texas.

Mason County EMS were transporting an elderly man to the hospital when, 20 miles into their journey, they were told by another driver that a dog had leaped onto the small side step of the ambulance, according to The Standard-Times.

The almost 40-pound Beagle mix, Buddy, just wanted to be close to his owner JR Nicholson.

One of the EMT’s told the Standard-Times that they had no choice but to bring the dog into the ambulance and hospital. More

Punxsutawney Phil predicts more winter gloom

PUNXSUTAWNEY, Pennsylvania -The handlers for groundhog Punxsutawney Phil say he`s forecasting six more weeks of what already has felt like a brutally long and cold winter. Pennsylvania`s famed groundhog emerged from his lair in front of thousands of fans around daybreak Sunday. Legend has it that if the furry rodent sees his shadow on Feb. 2, winter will last another month-and-a-half. If he doesn`t see it, spring will come early. In reality, Phil`s prediction is decided ahead of time by a group called the Inner Circle, whose members don top hats and tuxedos for the annual Groundhog Day ceremony on Gobblers Knob, the tiny hill in the town for which he`s named about 65 miles northeast of Pittsburgh. More

Zoo cuts bananas out of monkey diets

England - A British zoo said its monkeys have been put on a banana-free diet because the fruits are too sweet and sugary. Officials at the Paignton Zoo Environmental Park in Devon, England, said the facility weaned its monkeys off of fruit and onto a more vegetable-focused diet because it is healthier for the primates. "People usually try to improve their diet by eating more fruit -- but fruit cultivated for humans is much higher in sugar and much lower in protein and fiber than most wild fruit because we like our fruit to be so sweet and juicy. Giving this fruit to animals is equivalent to giving them cake and chocolate," said Amy Plowman, the zoo`s head of conservation and advocacy. and an expert in animal nutrition. More

Triple-dog dare? Girl gets tongue stuck to flagpole

New Hampshire – In a scene straight out of “A Christmas Story,” a New Hampshire girl got her tongue stuck to a flagpole after licking it during a blizzard.

And it wasn’t even a triple-dog dare.

Maddie Gilmartin, 12, of East Kingston, said she was helping her dad clean up outside last week when an idea popped into her head to stick her tongue on a flagpole.

Gilmartin thought her tongue would come right off, but it didn’t, WMUR reports.

“I see her standing at the flagpole, her arms are waving,” said Maddie’s dad, Shawn Gilmartin.  ”I’m not sure what’s going on until I got closer.” More

Soon animals will be able to sue owners

Switzerland – The reason is that the country has an extraordinary set of animal protection laws that closely define the obligations of pet owners and farmers. Now it is about to go a step farther: a national referendum will decide whether to allow animals official legal representation. More

Study: Elephants Can Suffer From Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome

LONDON (CBS Atlavnta) – African elephants are suffering from mass killings that took place decades ago, says a new study.

While they may appear normal to the average human, the experts say these elephants show clear signs of social disorders, similar to post-traumatic stress.

Wildlife officials often used culling as a management tool from the 1960s to the 1990s.

The managers worried that too many elephants would overrun and destroy the preserve.

Park officials would then send young male survivors to other facilities.

“Some of these elephants ended up in Pilanesberg National Park,” in South Africa’s North West Province where part of the new study was carried out, says Graeme Shannon, a behavioral ecologist at Colorado State University, Fort Collins, and the lead author of the new study. More

Scientists upbeat on development of invisibility cloak

China – Mainland scientists are increasingly confident of developing the world’s first invisibility cloak, using technology to hide objects from view and make them “disappear”.

The central government has funded at least 40 research teams over the past three years to develop the idea, which until now has largely been the stuff of science fiction and fantasy novels like the Harry Potter series.

The technology would have obvious military uses such as developing stealth aircraft, but Beijing believes the research could lead to wider technological breakthroughs with broader uses, scientists involved in the research said.

The main approaches are developing materials that guide light away from an object, creating electromagnetic fields to bend light away from what one is trying to hide and copying nature to make hi-tech camouflage materials. More

Dog Needs Surgery After Eating Girls Homework

Colorado – A family dog is recovering after emergency surgery after eating a girl’s homework.
It’s the oldest line in the classroom - ”My dog ate my homework.” But in this case it was painfully true.
“I made a volcano project out of candy and I pinned the candy to a foam base,” Payton said.
Payton and her dog Reggie share a love of school science projects.
“It was Mt. Haleakala in Maui,” Payton said.
Reggie’s hunger for knowledge landed him in surgery. Fifty straight pins showed up on his abdominal X-ray. More

Fallen tree looks like a dog

UK – Council workers in Ipswich thought they were barking up the wrong tree when they saw this.
Workmen were clearing up the town’s Alexander Park after the recent storms, and discovered a dog’s head in the upturned roots of a fallen oak tree.
Alexandra Park and Holywells Park in Ipswich have still not re-opened due to damage by St Jude’s storm, reports the Ipswich Star. More