Most Emailed Odd News

GIBSON, La. - A real estate agent showing a house got to the basement and found about 100 human bones in a corner. James Kenny, a forensic investigator with the Terrebonne Parish Coroner's Office, says the bones found Saturday were so old that dirt had saturated the marrow inside them. He says they probably are remains of Native Americans buried long before the house was built.

LIMA (Reuters) - Peruvian police said on Thursday they had broken up a gang that allegedly killed dozens of people and sold their fat to buyers who used it to make cosmetics.

LONDON (Reuters) - A first edition of Charles Darwin's "On the Origin of Species," which had been kept in a toilet bookcase for years, will go on sale this week and is expected to fetch 40-60,000 pounds ($66-100,000).

NASHVILLE, Tennessee (Reuters) - A judge on Friday blocked a Tennessee law that allowed people to bring handguns into restaurants and bars.

OSLO (Reuters) - The people of Bergen rolled out the cookie dough Monday as local police tried to sniff out vandals who destroyed the Norwegian city's traditional Christmas decoration -- a town of gingerbread houses.

CANBERRA (Reuters) - An elderly man who went out to fetch a morning newspaper ended up driving nearly 400 miles after getting lost and taking a wrong turn onto a major Australian highway, police said on Wednesday. The man, 81-year-old Eric Steward, eventually stopped and asked for directions after driving for nine hours, from the New South Wales country town of Yass to Geelong in the southern Victoria state.

NEW YORK - You'll need to be 21 to take a bite out of this Thanksgiving turkey. New York City tavern owner Paul Hurley said he'll unveil what he is calling the nation's first 100-proof turkey on Monday. A spokesman for the owner of O'Casey's Tavern in Midtown Manhattan said that the bird is infused with fruit-flavored and 100-proof Georgi vodka for three days before being cooked. The flavors of vodka include peach, raspberry, cherry and apple.

BERLIN (Reuters) - A car expert says he has tracked down Hitler's favorite Mercedes to a garage near the town that helped the Austrian-born Fuehrer become a German citizen.

TAIPEI (Reuters) - A man in Taiwan was robbed of more than $2 million in cash that he had just withdrawn from the bank, a police official said on Tuesday.

INDIANAPOLIS - A man was arrested after police said he left his 5-year-old son in a tractor-trailer while he ducked into an Indianapolis strip club to drink. The 39-year-old was arrested at 1:15 a.m. Tuesday on child neglect and public intoxication charges after calling police to report his truck stolen and his child missing. Police said the man was too drunk to remember where he had parked.

RALEIGH, N.C. - A North Carolina doctor could lose his medical license after a patient complained he made cutting criticisms, including telling her she was fat. The News & Observer of Raleigh reported the North Carolina Medical Board will decide if Dr. Earl Sunderhaus of Asheville overstepped the bounds of professional decency.

BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Santa Claus should avoid kissing children and shaking their hands to prevent spreading the flu and should get vaccinated against the illness, Hungary's state health authority said.

REHOBOTH, Mass. - A Massachusetts woman is seeking donations from fellow pet lovers to help pay for eye surgery for her turkey named Jerry. Lyndsey Medeiros and her husband adopted three-year-old Jerry and another turkey from a Rhode Island farm last week. But Jerry has cataracts, and the eye problems mean he can't eat independently or join his female companion, Penelope, in flying.

CARROLLTON, Ill. - A cat went from meow to ow when officials say it accidentally made contact with a substation's fuse, causing an outage to about 1,500 homes and businesses in southwestern Illinois. The feline apparently survived the encounter early Monday in the Greene County city of Carrollton.

WELLINGTON (Reuters) - A Santa in New Zealand with a droopy eye has received a NZ$100,000 ($74,000) face-lift in the run-up to Christmas so that his aging face does not scare children.

WARWICK, R.I. - Police say a 17-year-old Warwick boy who skipped school to rob a bank has been arrested after leaving fingerprints on the threatening note he passed to the teller. Warwick police Capt. Sean Collins said the boy handed a note riddled with misspellings to a teller Thursday, demanding money or "everyone will be shot."

THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. - A 39-year-old Southern California man has been arrested for misdemeanor child annoyance after allegedly paying a teenager $31 to spit in his face. The Ventura County Sheriff's Department says Charles Hersel was arrested Wednesday in a sting operation at a mall in Thousand Oaks. He's free from jail pending a court hearing.

ATLANTA - A riding lawn mower may have four wheels, a powerful engine and can cost as much as a used car. If it's stolen, however, the Georgia Supreme Court concluded Monday that it's not a motor vehicle.

LONDON (AFP) - A hotel chain offered Tuesday to take some of the stress out of Christmas this year with a special room rate in Britain for mother-in-laws.

NEW YORK - Nude, yes. Lewd, no.

STREETSBORO, Ohio - Police say a bank robbery suspect in Ohio may have eaten evidence when he gobbled a piece of paper while handcuffed and lying across the hood of a police cruiser.

LONDON - Britain's authority on etiquette says it's more hygienic to exchange kisses on the cheek than to shake hands — so the swine flu pandemic should not make people afraid of kissing under the mistletoe this holiday season.

MONTGOMERY, Ala. - The Alabama Supreme Court says a woman who thought she had hit a jackpot worth almost $42 million at the Victoryland electronic bingo center will end up empty handed. The court ruled Friday that an electronic bingo machine that showed Sherry Knowles had won $41.8 million obviously malfunctioned and that she was actually due no more than $2 from the operation in Macon County.

LYON, France (AFP) - A suspected bank robber may not be most girls' idea of Mr Right, but women are proposing marriage to a jailed French van driver accused of stealing million of euros, his lawyer said Monday.

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Swedish police have arrested two North Korean diplomats on suspicion of smuggling 230,000 cigarettes into the Nordic country, the Swedish Customs Office said Friday.

BETHLEHEM, Pa. - An eastern Pennsylvania prosecutor wants charges dropped against a couple who refused to pay a tip at a restaurant where they said they got poor service. Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli said he's recommending that Bethlehem police drop the theft of services charges.

FRIERSON, La. - Flushed evidence doesn't go far if your toilet's on a septic system. DeSoto Parish sheriff's Lt. Toni Joe Morris said Tuesday that deputies brought in a backhoe when drug agents raided a home and business and met the owner coming out of a bathroom.

MERCER, Pa. - A western Pennsylvania woman has been ordered to stand trial on charges she passed a drug-filled balloon to a state prison inmate while kissing him. State police said guards at the State Correctional Institution-Mercer became suspicious when an inmate appeared to swallow something after a prolonged kiss with a visitor on Oct. 19.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The launch of Wikipedia, emergence of the iPhone and the election of U.S. President Barack Obama were among the 10 most influential moments on the Internet in the past decade, according to the annual Webby awards.

PERKASIE, Pennsylvania (Reuters) - Carin Froehlich pegs her laundry to three clotheslines strung between trees outside her 18th-century farmhouse, knowing that her actions annoy local officials who have asked her to stop.