Weird News Files

LAGOS – Police in Nigeria are holding a goat on suspicion of attempted armed robbery.

Vigilantes took the black and white beast to the police saying it was an armed robber who had used black magic to transform himself into a goat to escape arrest after trying to steal a Mazda 323.

“The group of vigilante men came to report that while they were on patrol they saw some hoodlums attempting to rob a car. They pursued them. However one of them escaped while the other turned into a goat,” Kwara state police spokesman Tunde Mohammed told Reuters by telephone.

“We cannot confirm the story, but the goat is in our custody. We cannot base our information on something mystical. It is something that has to be proved scientifically, that a human being turned into a goat,” he said.

Belief in witchcraft is widespread in parts of Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation. Residents came to the police station to see the goat, photographed in one national newspaper on its knees next to a pile of straw.

Source: Reuters via Yahoo News Link filed under Weird World News.

A manhunt is under way in western Germany for a convicted drug dealer who escaped by mailing himself out of jail.

The 42-year-old Turkish citizen – who was serving a seven-year sentence – had been making stationery with other prisoners destined for delivery to stores.

At the end of his shift, the inmate climbed into a cardboard box and was taken out of prison by express courier. His whereabouts are still unknown.

The chief warden of the jail remarked this was an embarrassing incident.

WOMEN in Papua New Guinea’s Highland region are killing their male babies to end a tribal war that has gone on for more than 20 years.

Two women from the Eastern Highlands spoke of the slaughter to PNG’s National newspaper during a three-day peace and reconciliation course in the region’s capital of Goroka.

Rona Luke and Kipiyona Belas, from two warring tribes, said male infanticide reduced the cyclical payback violence infamous in Highlands tribal fights.

If women stopped producing males, their tribe’s stock would go down and this would force the men to end their fight, the women said.

“All the womenfolk agreed to have all male babies born killed because they have had enough of men engaging in tribal conflicts and bringing misery to them,” Ms Luke said.

The women could not give a figure on how many male babies had been killed.

Ms Belas said getting food was hard as husbands kept fighting and mothers and children were left to fend for themselves.

The Salvation Army told the Australian Associated Press that women were so fed up with the ongoing violence that they were taking drastic steps.

“This situation shows the extreme frustration the women have with the men in these areas,” a spokesman said.

Source: AAP Link Filed under Weird World News

Photo: AP

MEXICO CITY – Hiroshi Nohara is on a layover at the Mexico City airport. It has lasted almost three months, and he has no plans to leave.

For reasons he can’t explain, the Japanese man has been in Terminal 1 of the Benito Juarez International Airport since Sept. 2, surviving off donations from fast-food restaurants and passengers and sleeping in a chair.

At first, he frightened passengers, and airport authorities asked the Japanese Embassy to investigate why the foul-smelling man refused to leave. Now, he’s somewhat of a celebrity, capturing Mexico‘s collective imagination with nearly daily television news reports on his life at the food court.

Tourists stop to pose with him for photographs or get an autograph.

The Tokyo native flew into Mexico with a tourist visa and a return ticket home, but he never left the airport. In an interview Thursday alongside the airport McDonald’s, he said he had no motive for his extended stay and doesn’t know how much longer he’ll remain.

“I don’t understand why I’m here,” he said through a visiting interpreter originally hired by a television station. “I don’t have a reason.”

The embassy can’t force him to leave, and since Nohara’s visa is valid all Mexican officials can do it wait for it to expire in early March.

During his stay, Nohara’s wiry goatee has grown into a scraggly mass. His red-tinted hair is speckled with dust and dandruff, and his cream-colored jacket and fleece blanket are dingy with overuse. He smells like he hasn’t had a shower in months.

“He’s a calm person, a nice man,” said Silvia Navarrete del Toro, an airport janitor. “He just sits here and eats all day.”

Various stalls in the food court give Nohara free snacks and drinks, sometimes even throwing in hats or coffee mugs with store logos to get free publicity during his frequent television appearances.

Strangers often buy him pastries or hamburgers; he prefers the latter.
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Source: Brisbane Times via AP Link filed under Weird World News

A baby boy with eight toes on each foot was discharged from a hospital in Leizhou, southeast Guangdong province on November 5, 2008. The baby has five fingers on each hand but doesn’t have thumbs. Doctors said this might have something to do with genetics or environment pollution.

Source: ChinaDaily Link Filed under Weird Diseases

A Polish man drove his vehicle into a lake after following the instructions of a satellite navigation system, police have said.

The Mercedes mini-van driver ignored a series of warning signs before using an abandoned road which led to the lake. His vehicle was almost entirely submerged by the time emergency services arrived on the scene, but the man and his two passengers had already escaped unharmed.

“The man took a road that was closed a year ago when the area was flooded to make an artificial lake serving as a water reservoir – he ignored three road signs warning of a dead end,” Piotr Smolen, police spokesman in Glubczyce, southern Poland told AFP.

“It was still night time and he didn’t notice the road led into the lake. His GPS told him to drive straight ahead and he did.”

Smolen confirmed that the man in question made his first emergency call while he was still inside the sinking van. He then sat on the vehicle’s roof with his passengers as they waited for assistance.

Source: DigitalSpy Link filed under Weird World News.