Meet Mumble - the confused Chinese chicken who thinks he's a penguin. Instead of scratching in the ground and roosting on a perch at night, Mumble walks around waddling from side to side. Farmer Lu Xi got the bird as a chick, reports CEN. "He only has little wings, just like a penguin, which he sticks out when he walks. I guess that's why he never flies," he said. Local media at Jiangsu nicknamed the chicken Mumble after the character in the film Happy Feet, about a penguin who can't sing so dances instead. Lu added: "I had not seen the film but I like the name, although my bird can't dance - and I don't think he can swim either. "But he should be happy - my family all like him and so we decided to keep him instead of putting him in the pot."
A 40-year-old from a village in south west China is hoping to claim the title of world's shortest man. At just 76cm (just under two foot, six inches) Huang Kaiquan is only 1.4cm higher than previous record holder He Pingping, who died in March aged 21. Huang, who smokes heavily and is a former magician, is the height and weight of an average three year old. In Sanjiang village, Huang is known to locals as 'Short Brother'. He still lives with his mother Cheng. She said: "He didn't grow at all one month after birth. We thought it's just late development and didn't pay enough attention. "When Huang was three, he still wore the clothes of a one-year-old. It was then we noticed his unusualness."
A 56-year-old woman who used to weigh 20 stone before she had a gastric bypass in November has become the slowest person ever to swim the Channel. Jackie Cobell from Tonbridge, Kent, took 28 hours and 44 minutes to get from Dover to Calais on Sunday after swimming 64 miles instead of the 21-mile direct route. Mrs Cobell's circuitous trip to Calais was due to being pushed wildly off course by the strong tides. She 'beat' the previous record, set by Henry Sullivan in 1923, by one hour and 56 minutes, reports the Daily Telegraph. "I kept seeing the beach and thinking I was nearly there, then the tide would sweep me along the coast," she said. Her husband David, who followed in a boat, said: "There were times when she seemed to be moving away from the beach rather than towards it and her stroke was getting weaker and weaker, but I wasn't ready for the amount of energy and persistence she had in doing the job."
A New Mexico man who investigators say set his prosthetic leg on fire with a pocketed crack pipe has been arrested.
Deputies say they found 47-year-old Randy Malone naked along U.S. 70 with his prosthetic right leg in flames on July 5. He was treated for burns to his leg, back and buttocks. A witness later told authorities he agreed to give Malone a ride into Las Cruces, but dropped him off after the passenger lit a crack pipe inside the vehicle. Dona Ana County deputies arrested Malone on Sunday at his home after the man's brothers tipped investigators. Malone was being sought on a warrant for making a false report.
Hamilton bank staff were left laughing after a bare-chested man demanded 50 cents from them, before crouching down then running away yesterday. TSB manager Sandra Makein told the Waikato Times it was definitely one of the more unusual attempted robberies she had heard of. "If you can call it a robbery," she said. Police said the man, in his early 20s, entered the Victoria St bank with a bandana over his lower face and demanded $10. When the teller said she didn't have any money he asked for 50c before crouching into the starting race position and running out of the bank. A passing policeman gave chase and the man was caught in Ward St.
