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'Banana boys' suspended for school prank

ZION-BENTON HIGH School: Monkey business not funny

A senior prank at Zion-Benton Township High School seemed quite humorous at first. But as a group of students quickly learned, the administration isn't amused with monkey business. And so - after 10 students in larger-than-life banana costumes ran the halls of the high school with an eleventh student dressed as a gorilla giving chase - the boys are on the raw end of a seven-day suspension.

The prank started innocently. Senior Andrew Leinonen, who will study criminal justice at Carthage College this fall, wanted to do something that wouldn't damage property or hurt anyone, while still being hilarious. "What's funnier than a gorilla chasing bananas through a school? Nothing," Leinonen said. "It was a harmless prank."

Penguin's wetsuit puts him back in the swim of things

What's black and white and warm all over? A penguin in a wetsuit, naturally. Sounds like a joke, but it's quite serious for biologists at the California Academy of Sciences, who had a wetsuit created for an African penguin to help him get back in the swim of things. Pierre, a venerable 25 years old, was going bald, which left him with an embarrassingly exposed, pale pink behind.


One concern was that the other penguins would reject Pierre in his new duds, but in fact, they accepted his sleek new look. Pierre was outfitted with the suit about six weeks ago. Since then, he has gained weight, grown back feathers on his hind parts and is again acting like his feisty, alpha-male self.
On a recent visit, Pierre waddled around the tank, taking brief dips and standing on a rock next to his mate. He blended in well, although he was the only penguin with a black tummy.
Schaller can't say for sure whether the wetsuit allowed Pierre to recover his fine feathers, but "certainly we were able to keep him comfortable during a period of time that would have been very difficult for him to stay comfortable."

Retired Men Drill Team

Shelter dog nurses 9 kittens

A dog in Burlington, Iowa, is taking care of nine kittens that lost their own mother. "She does everything momma cat would do," said Angie Beard, a worker at the Des Moines County Humane Society. "She's excellent."Lilly Lou, as shelter workers call her, is nursing nine kittens, the results of three litters that all lost their mothers.Beard initially gave Lilly two kittens, hoping she would take to them while the rest were bottle fed. Shelter workers were hopeful that Lilly would accept more kittens as their chances for survival being bottle fed weren't very high.
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Lilly, who recently had six puppies of her own and is expecting another litter, immediately took to her new charges, which Beard and other shelter workers have dubbed "pittens," or puppy kittens. "If one of them crawls out of bed, she'll follow it around the room and then take it back to the bed," Beard said. "She cleans them just like her own puppies; she feeds them just like her own puppies." The kittens are three and four weeks old now and will stay with Lilly until they are six weeks old.

Sat Nav sends mini-bus into river

A mini-bus owned by a taxi firm called Streamline was left stranded after a satellite navigation system guided it into a river.
The driver was on his way to collect a fare in Castle Acre, near King's Lynn, Norfolk, on Saturday night when he took a wrong turn into the River Nar.
A spokeswoman for the King's Lynn-based business said: 'The driver told us he was following his sat nav and, when it told him to carry straight on, he did, even though it was taking him along the river.'
The vehicle was removed on Sunday and is being examined by mechanics.

Student booted from school after refusing to recite Pledge of Allegiance

A public high school student's refusal to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance got her booted from class in Hamilton County until a lawyer explained that her actions are religious.
Eighteen-year-old Tyner Academy senior Quinesha Garrett was removed this week from daytime classes and ordered to night school, where the pledge is not recited.
After meeting with her lawyer, school administrators reversed themselves and a school district spokeswoman said Garrett was being allowed to return to daytime classes Wednesday. Garrett told the Chattanooga Times Free Press that she is a devout Christian and believes she should not pledge her allegiance to anyone but God. Clark said that once school administrators became aware of Garrett's reason, "they nullified the transfer."

Tallest woman wants 3ft baby to outgrow her

Like mother like son. India's tallest woman, who stands 7ft 2in, claims her baby has grown to 3ft 2in in only 10 months.

Svetlana Singh says she hopes her child Karan, who already weighs three-and-a-half stone, will be the tallest man in the world.

Speaking in the family's home in Meerut, outside Delhi, Mrs Singh told how the hungry boy needs feeding an astonishing 20 times a day. "He just doesn't stop eating and never stops growing," she said. "He is only ten-months-old and wears clothes designed for five-year-olds. "Karan has never fitted into baby clothes, even when he was first born he was 2ft 2in tall and was the same size as a normal two-year-old." Husband Sanjay, who at 6ft 6in has to look up to his wife, hopes his son's height will help him become a basketball player so he can study in America. "Both sides of our family are very tall - my father is 6ft 5in and Svetlana's father is 6ft 7in - so Karan could not really have been born any other way," he said.
Despite being proud of their size the family admit it can cause problems. Traveling in buses and cars is almost impossible because both husband and wife have to stoop to fit in. And shopping becomes an ordeal in itself as hordes of curious onlookers gather to stare at the couple and their giant baby.

Breakfast for a 3-week-old kitten

Baby thrown out of shop for 'Farting'

A WOMAN was asked to leave an Enfield charity shop after the assistants accused her baby of passing wind.
Dr Mine Dogantan Dack, a research fellow in piano music at Middlesex University, claims one of the assistants asked her to leave the British Heart Foundation (BHF) shop, in Palmers Green, on April 12, after implying her 17-month-old daughter had caused a stink.
Dr Dack said: "I told them that my baby didn't do a poo or (pass wind) while we were in the shop; and that even if she did they have no right to ask me to leave.
"Who gives the BHF staff the authority to act as the 'fart police'?