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Racy ad to be removed from flight path

A giant silhouette of a naked pole dancer painted on a field beneath Gatwick Airport's flight path is disturbing the British countryside.

The 9,300 square metre advertisement is nearly invisible from the ground, but can be seen by airline passengers, Tandridge District Council spokeswoman Giuseppina Valenza said today.

©Unk
The giant silhouette of a naked pole dancer beneath the flight path of southern England's Gatwick Airport.

Heart

Do not go gentle into that good night: singing seniors redefine rock songs

NORTHAMPTON, Mass. -- Fred Knittle wears his belt up high. His nose is tethered to an oxygen tank, and on stage he's confined to a folding chair. From this unlikely perch, he's turning rock 'n' roll on its head.

Singing Coldplay's "Fix You," Knittle transforms the song into a powerful ballad about a grandfather's healing wisdom. It means something different coming from an 80-year-old retiree suffering from congestive heart failure.

Document

Indian man, 73, fails school exams on 38th try

A 73-year-old Indian farmer who vowed not to marry before passing his high school exams has failed to get through for the 38th time.

Shiv Charan Yadav has been taking the exams -- normally given to schoolchildren at the age of 15 -- every year since 1969, without success.

He was in his 30s when he first decided to better himself through education.

This year, he failed everything except Sanskrit, scoring only 103 out of a possible 600 points.

Coffee

Boy lives with broken neck for ten years, baffles doctors

A sports fanatic teenager has baffled medical experts by living for 10 years with a broken neck that could have killed him at any time.

Alfie Tyson-Brown, 14, led an active life playing rugby, surfing, mountain-bike riding and enjoyed rollercoasters unaware he had broken a bone in his neck when he was a toddler.

Telescope

Mom's Baby Monitor Picks Up Shuttle Astronauts

A mother in Palatine, Ill., turned on her baby monitor recently and saw something that was literally out of this world, reports CBS station WBBM-TV in Chicago.

Arrow Down

Cover up!: $500 fine or six months in jail for baggy pants

A mayor in the US state of Louisiana says he will sign into law a proposal to make wearing saggy trousers an act of indecent exposure.

Delcambre town council unanimously passed the ordinance earlier this week making it a crime to wear trousers that show underwear.

Bizarro Earth

Three hurt as squirrel goes nuts

An unusually aggressive squirrel attacked three people in a German town before its last victim finished it off with a crutch, police said Wednesday.

The rodent jumped through a living-room window in Passau, on the Austrian border, on Tuesday and bit its first victim. With the squirrel hanging on by its teeth, the woman ran out into the street, where she managed to shake the animal off.

The squirrel then bit a builder before fleeing into a nearby garden, where it bit a 72-year-old man who eventually killed it with his crutch, police said.

The dead animal was to be tested for rabies.

Wolf

Elderly care home for dogs to open in Japan

Japan's first elderly care home for dogs is set to open this week, tapping into a growing market as the problem of ageing spreads from humans to the pet population.

Saradi Corp. will accommodate up to 20 dogs at a facility set up in cooperation with a veterinary surgeon in the resort area of Nasu, north of Tokyo, Chief Executive Nana Uchida said on Thursday.

A veterinarian will be on call 24 hours a day and the dogs will have the opportunity to exercise, eat natural foods and mix with younger dogs to maintain their vitality, the company said in a statement.

Sheeple

Hawk, Escaped Lamb Roam NYC Streets



©AP Photo/Kathy Willens
"Lucky Lady," a seven month-old lamb found wandering around in the Bronx, poses for a portrait

NEW YORK - A hawk down in midtown Manhattan? Another bird of prey grounded across town? A lamb on the lam in the Bronx? True. All in one day. The series of animal adventures began around 10 a.m. Wednesday when a former parks commissioner reported spotting a hawk that had crash landed. At about 11:30 a.m., several blocks away, came a report of another wounded bird, this time an American kestrel.

Wolf

Dog Helps Save Foal From Abandoned Well

BANGOR, Maine - It could have been a scene straight out of "Lassie." Kurt Smith was working in the yard at his horse boarding and breeding facility Monday when Molly, his border collie, came running and barking, signaling that something was amiss.