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News that’s fit to print
-- online, at least

It was a week ago today (Monday) that 31-year-old Neil Melly, a Canadian citizen, stripped off his clothes at the Los Angeles International Airport, climbed an 8-foot barbed-wire fence, ran across the tarmac and hid in the wheel well of a Qantas Airlines Boeing 747. Police and firefighters eventually persuaded Melly, who suffers from bipolar disorder, to remove himself from the wheel well.

A fascinating story to be sure, but one that would have passed me by had I not been familiar with allheadlinenews. com, an Internet news site that, in addition to reporting on business, politics, sports and entertainment, also features a special section dedicated to offbeat news stories.

It's where I also learned about Mike Overton of Springdale, Ark., who recently won election to the Springdale City Council despite the fact that he backed out of the campaign shortly after announcing his candidacy without spending a dime or giving a speech.

Of course, allheadlinenews. com isn't the only site to feature such quirky news items. There's also news.yahoo.com's "Oddly Enough" section, which reported last week that a man climbed into the lion's den at the Taipei Zoo in an attempt to convert the animals to Christianity. He shouted "Jesus will save you!" and "Come bite me!" at two African lions resting beneath a tree. One of the beasts obliged and bit the man's leg before zoo workers chased him away with water hoses and a tranquilizer gun.

Visit cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/WeirdNews for details on the off-duty officer dressed as Shrek who scared a liquor store thief into surrendering, the National Guard fighter jet that accidentally strafed a New Jersey elementary school with 25 rounds of ammunition during a late-night mission, kids attacked by temple monkeys in India and a girl in Georgia who apparently is oblivious to pain.

The best news, though is that Spam, the unofficial canned meat of our fair isles, is being relaunched in the UK, says news.myway.com. Question is, what took you lot so long, then?

Note: Web sites mentioned in this column were active at time of publication. The Honolulu Star-Bulletin neither endorses nor is responsible for their contents.

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