Offbeat Enough

HANOI (Reuters) – Many sick passengers who flew to Ho Chi Minh City in southern Vietnam took fever reducers to cheat temperature scanners at the airport, leading to the discovery of several infected cases later, state media reported at the weekend.

TAIPEI (Reuters) – A Taiwanese groom died on his wedding day after having too much wine and beer to drink, police and local media said Monday.

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) – Internet-Age innovator Google is taking advantage of an old-time principle to thwart wildfires: goats will eat almost anything.

WARSAW (Reuters) – A Polish politician has criticized his local zoo for acquiring a “gay” elephant named Ninio who prefers male companions and will probably not procreate, local media reported Friday.

BERLIN (Reuters) – A German woman has divorced her husband because she was fed up with him cleaning all the time.

LAGOS (Reuters) – A Nigerian undergraduate has been sentenced to 19 years in prison for obtaining $47,000 (33,382 pounds) from an Australian woman by convincing her over the Internet that he was 57 years old, white, and madly in love with her.

VIENNA (AFP) – A village in northern Austria, worried by its dwindling population, is offering free land to all who pledge to start a family in a decade, the Kurier newspaper reported Saturday.

BRADENTON, Fla. – Sheriff’s officers said a 19-year-old man snatched a Starbucks customers laptop after being told he could not use it to check his Facebook account. According to officers, the man then grabbed the customer’s laptop and ran out of the coffee shop, located in an outlet mall.

DREXEL HILL, Pa. – Police in a Philadelphia suburb say a 19-year-old woman accused of arson was caught on a surveillance camera singing, “The fire department is going to be mad at me.”

DAYTON, Nev. – Gabriel Hurles’ sixth birthday party wasn’t a surprise, but his present sure was. The kindergartner was so engrossed in the cupcakes his mother brought to his class on Wednesday that he didn’t notice the enormous wrapped box off to the side.

LAGOS (Reuters) – Police in Nigeria are holding a goat on suspicion of attempted armed robbery.