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Weird and Wonderful Weekly

April 10, 2009 6:35 PM

Bizarre Incidents, Quotes and People From Around the World

By GABRIEL O'RORKE, ABC News London

Quotes of the Week

"We didn't pay 37 million zlotys [$11 million] for the largest elephant house in Europe to have a gay elephant live there." -- Michal Grzes, a conservative Polish politician, complaining that his local zoo acquired an elephant that prefers male companions and, therefore, will not procreate.

"He hasn't got the best teeth in the world, but you can afford to go and get them done now if you like." -- BBC presenter Clare Balding, who caused a stir after making this comment to Grand National-winning jockey Liam Treadwell.

WWW News

U R Divorced: Last week, we saw a woman divorce her husband for being too clean. This week, men took revenge when Saudi Arabia saw its first known divorce by text message. The Arab News reported that the man was in Iraq taking part in ‘jihad’ when he sent the terminal message. Under Islamic Sharia law, a man can divorce his wife by saying, "I divorce you," three times.

Stalking Your Son: Still on the phone theme, a 73-year-old Austrian woman who called her son as much as 49 times a day has been fined by a court for stalking him. A penalty of $480 was issued to the woman for “stalking” over a two-and-a-half year period.

Facts and Figures

200 years. Twenty decades later, an egg collected by Charles Darwin during his voyage on HMS Beagle has been rediscovered at Cambridge University. The small dark brown egg has Darwin's name written on it.

51 chillies. An Indian woman is heading for the record books after eating 51 chillies in two minutes. British chef Gordon Ramsay witnessed the feat by 26-year-old Anandita Dutta Tamuly in the northeastern state of Assam.

5 weeks. The amount of time a cat named Felix spent under a pile of rubble after a six-story building collapsed in Cologne, Germany. Miraculously, the 12-year-old cat was pulled out alive and well.

4 months. The time that passed before a castaway dog was found on a remote Australian island. The dog survived a long swim across shark-infested waters after losing its owners on a sailing trip off Queensland last November.

Read more blogs by Gabriel O'Rorke

Read more blogs by ABC News staff

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