HUMULIATED: An Australian senator whose crying toddler was ejected from parliament during a political vote has prompted a review of chamber rules and sparked a heated debate over child-friendly work practices.
Australian Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said she was “humiliated” when Senate President John Hogg ordered her teary two-year-old daughter removed from the parliamentary chamber before a vote, in accordance with parliamentary rules. – Reuters.
ABUSE PROMOTION: A Spanish bar is encouraging clients to insult its staff and offering free drinks for original or hilarious abuse.“When you come in after work, you can say swear at them and call them bastard or imbecile,” said client Antonio Ossa, who told state news agency EFE the promotion by the “Casa Pocho” bar in the southern town of Cullera near Valencia seemed like a good idea to him.“That way they won’t let it out on their family,” he said. —— Reuters.
DISTENDED SHARKS: Mexico’s navy has seized more than a tonne of cocaine stuffed inside frozen sharks, as drug gangs under military pressure go to greater lengths to conceal narcotics bound for the United States.“Those in charge of the shipment said it was a conserving agent but after checks we confirmed it was cocaine,” he said.Drug gangs are coming up with increasingly creative ways of getting drugs into the United States – in sealed beer cans, religious statues and furniture – as Mexico’s military cracks down on the cartels moving South American narcotics north. —— Reuters.
FISHERMAN’S TALE: A Chinese farmer dug a 50ft hole inside his house to go fishing.Li Huiyan, of Chongqing, hired 30 villagers for six months to dig the hole in his kitchen, reports IC Media.He wanted to reach an underground river which he suspected was full of fish. —— Ananova.
EASTER EVICTION: A woman is going to court claiming she was wrongly evicted from her apartment because she kept her Easter decorations on her door for two weeks after the holiday.Carol Burdick claims her landlord unjustly told her to remove a display of Easter stickers, plastic grass, and Peeps marshmallow candies from her door a few days after the April 12 holiday this year. – Msnbc. NOT SO FAST!: Ukrainian customs said its officers had seized 250 tortoises that a passenger had tried to smuggle across the former Soviet republic’s eastern border aboard a sleeper train.“While officers were conducting a check aboard the Tashkent-Kharkiv train, a citizen of Uzbekistan was found to have hidden 250 tortoises behind a panel in the toilet and between berths two and three,” it said in a statement. —— Reuters.
FIRE-BUGS: Oahu firefighters have been issued a reminder to be sure to turn off cooking equipment when responding to emergencies. Â The advice comes in the wake of a blaze at the Waipahu fire station that caused about US$25 000 damage. Honolulu Fire Department spokesman said food was inadvertently left cooking on a stove when the firefighters responded to an emergency call involving a traffic accident. —— AP.
HIGH ON BOOZE: An Austrian student woke up in the cab of a 150-foot-high crane after a night boozing with friends.  Stefan Hohenwart (28) told police he had no idea how he got up there when they found him after construction workers called them in Graz. The spokesman added: “Going up 150 feet into the crane cab can be risky if undertaken at the best of times, let alone drunk. —— Ananova.
