Man angers neighbours by shining ‘alien’ spotlights
A Pennsylvania city is trying to force a man to tone down the spotlights that neighbours say he uses at all hours to protect his home from “aliens”. Neighbours in the Virginia Road area of Hermitage said Arthur Brown, 78, shines the spotlights outside his foil-wrapped house at all hours of the day and night because he is afraid of extra-terrestrial attacks.
“Over the years he’s become a real problem. He has a lot of issues fearing aliens,” said Nancy Raich, Brown’s across the street neighbour. She wants to sell her house and buy a condo, but can’t get anyone interested in her property.
A judge ordered Brown to take down the lights earlier this year, imposing a $500-per-day fine if he continued to shine his spotlights late into the night. Officials said he has not complied and now owes more than $20,000. The city said it has now filed a petition to get an injunction to have Brown’s lights removed. “It’s a violation of the city’s zoning ordinance to have excess lighting that adversely affects neighbouring properties,” Hermitage City Manager Gary Hinkson said.
(UPI)
Siri fields question at White House briefing
Siri, Apple’s virtual assistant, interrupted a reporter’s Iran question at a White House press briefing to tell him she wasn’t “sure what you want me to change”.
Press Secretary Josh Earnest was fielding a question from a reporter about whether President Barack Obama was “upset” about the lack of Republican support for the Iran nuclear deal when the tell-tale sound of Siri’s question acknowledgment tone interrupted the man: “Sorry, I’m not sure what you want me to change,” the digital voice said. The interruption prompted laughter from Earnest and reporters, with one person in attendance noting: “That was on time.”
(UPI)
Wisconsin baby survives after drinking vodka in formula
A six-week-old girl in Wisconsin who was mistakenly given baby formula mixed with two shots of vodka was released from hospital, police said. The baby had a blood alcohol level of 0.294, more than three times the legal limit for an adult driver, after receiving the vodka-tainted formula, Kenosha police spokesman Bradley Hetlet said.
Hetlet said investigators believe it was a mistake and the girl’s parents will not be charged for the alcohol incident. Her father was charged separately for altercations that ensued after the girl began to suffer from the alcohol, he said.
Hetlet said the girl’s mother told police she filled a container with water to be used for the baby’s bottle, set it on a kitchen counter and left the room. The girl’s father entered the kitchen, emptied the container and filled it with vodka, intending to take the water bottle to a friend’s home. When the mother returned to the kitchen, she mixed about two ounces of the liquid with baby formula and fed her baby, Hetlet said. The parents realised the error when the child began acting abnormally, he said.
(Reuters)
Utah twins pregnant again with second set of twins
Kerri Bunker and Kelli Wall know a thing or two about twins. The two women are identical twins who already each have one set of twins. Now, they are getting ready to each have a second set of twins next spring, KSl-TV reports. “To have twins twice is incredible,” Wall said. The lindon women both had their first set of fraternal twins after using in vitro fertilisation after they struggled to get pregnant. This summer, both found out they are having twins again. They are both due two weeks apart next spring.
“It was like just one shock after another all summer long,” said Bunker.
It marked the latest sign that the two women are destined to live similar lives. They are both teachers at the same school, and they married best friends. Their first sets of twins are similar in age, as well. Bunker’s twins, Kole and Hallie, are three years old. Wall’s twins, Madison and McKell, are four years old. Bunker and Wall say they see similarities in how their twins interact and how they get along, including how they are protective of each other.
(AP)
‘evil spirits’ disrupt Zulu Reed Dance
South Africa’s annual Zulu Reed Dance ceremony was disrupted by hallucinating girls who swarmed the country’s President, a Johannesburg newspaper reported. Teenage girls dancing in the annual cultural festival heard voices and rushed toward the area where President Jacob Zuma and Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini were seated during the ceremony in KwaZulu-Natal province. The President’s bodyguards escorted him away from the thousands of colorfully-clad dancers, the report said.
Zuma’s spokesman, who was at the ceremony, said the newspaper reports were exaggerated. “There was no danger to the President,” Bongani Majola told The Associated Press, adding that Zuma attended the whole ceremony without further incident.
“There are some of you who came here with evil spirits to spoil this event,” the Zulu king told the crowd once order was restored, according to the report. Nomagugu Ngobese, president of a cultural group that trains the young women, heard reports that priests were summoned after some dancers began wailing, apparently possessed.
(AP)