Living Quarters

Swiss police chase escaped elephant through Zurich

0 Comments | Bismarck Tribune, Jun 8, 2010

n Riverhead, N.Y.

Shark tank wedding

A New York couple have taken the plunge inside a shark tank.

April Pignataro and Michael Curry were lowered in a steel cage into the tank to exchange their wedding vows at Atlantis Marine World in Riverhead, N.Y, on Sunday.

She wore a white wet suit; he wore a black one.

The experienced divers spoke their vows into radio headgear transmitted to a minister outside the tank. About 75 guests watched from behind glass.

The tank is part of the Lost City of Atlantis shark exhibit.

* Los Angeles

4 months for smuggler

A man who smuggled 14 Asian songbirds into the country by hiding them inside his pants during a flight from Vietnam to Los Angeles has been sentenced to four months in prison.

Sony Dong, of Garden Grove, was also ordered Monday to pay $4,000 in restitution to federal authorities caring for the birds.

The 46-year-old was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport last year after an inspector spotted bird droppings on his socks and saw feathers peeking out from under his pants. The birds were held in cloth wrappings attached to his legs and calves.

Co-defendant Duc (DUCK’) Le was sentenced to six months in prison. He was ordered to pay $25,000 in restitution.

Prosecutors have said Le was the ringleader of the operation.

* Aurora, Colo.

Bikinis lead to protest

A suburban Denver city councilwoman is urging people to boycott businesses near a coffee shop that sends bikini-clad women onto nearby city streets to advertise.

Councilwoman Molly Markert sent a letter of complaint, signed by about 30 Aurora residents, to the manager of the property where Perky Cups operates.

Markert suggested in the May 20 letter that the women promoting the coffee shop were in danger of being “raped and murdered.” She wrote that the petition signers have pledged to not buy anything at the shopping center until the women stop advertising in the streets.

Perky Cups owner Jason Bernal says his 10 employees aren’t at risk and that Markert’s letter went overboard.

* Zurich, Switzerland

Elephant in Zurich

Swiss police say an elephant that escaped from a circus and wandered through Zurich’s banking and commercial district has been recaptured.

City police spokesman Michael Wirz says officers chased the elephant through the city for an hour until a keeper was able to control the animal and bring it to safety.

He says nobody was hurt and there were no reports of damage following Sunday’s escapade.

Niklaus Leuenberger, a spokesman for the Knie circus, said Sabu the elephant got loose as she was about to be loaded onto a trailer.