1,700 animals found in trunk of car

Bari, Italy - A motorist is to be questioned by police after 1,700 animals were found crammed in the trunk of his car in Bari, Italy. Police had pulled the car over for a routine inspection when they discovered 216 parakeets, 300 white mice, 150 hamsters, 30 Japanese squirrels, six chameleons, and more than 1,000 terrapins, a type of turtle. All the animals were confiscated and passed to nearby zoos.....More

Bride's bouquet crashes plane in Italy

ROME – A romantic wedding in the Tuscan countryside ended with injuries after an attempt to launch the bride's bouquet from a plane brought down the tiny aircraft. Italian police say two people were hurt in the crash of the ultralight plane after the bridal bouquet they launched got caught in the aircraft's rear rotor.

The flowers blocked the engine, bringing the plane down by a youth hostel.

Police in the nearby town of Piombino said Tuesday the pilot was lightly injured in Saturday's crash, while the passenger who threw the bouquet had several broken bones.

The bride and groom were not aboard the plane.

Stupid News-No sandcastles please, you're in Italy

Stupid News-No sandcastles please, you're in Italy

ROME (Reuters) - When in Capri, don't wander off the beach in a bikini. If you go to the sea in Eraclea, near Venice, remember that building sandcastles is forbidden. And don't even think about mowing your lawn at the weekend in Forte dei Marmi.

Emboldened by a nationwide crackdown on crime and a government decree giving them extra law-and-order powers, Italian mayors have issued a string of often bizarre by-laws to enhance "public decorum."

Public displays of affection in a car can earn you a fine of up to 500 euros ($745) in Eboli, feeding pigeons is off-limits in the centre of Lucca while in Novara groups of more than two people are forbidden from lounging around in parks at night.

Italian newspapers have dubbed this year's holiday season "the summer of bans." But this week one town hall was forced to acknowledge things may have gone too far.

Rodrigo Piccoli, 33, called national radio to protest after he was fined 50 euros for lying down in a park in the northern city of Vicenza to read a book. The mayor has since promised to drop the ban.

(Reporting by Silvia Aloisi; Editing by Mike Collett-White)

Stupid News - Bird dung means big business on Peru island

Stupid News - Bird dung means big business on Peru island
VICTORIA BEKIEMPIS, Associated Press Writer
56 minutes ago



ISLA DE ASIA, Peru - It's a dirty job, but people love to do it. Workers toiling 24 days a month loosen, scrape, sift, filter and bag bird dung to make some of the world's finest organic fertilizer — known as guano.

They work in a chilly breeze with the pungent smell of must, salt and ammonia on the Isla de Asia, one of 22 islands where thousands of birds create industry and employment simply by defecating.

"It's fun, everybody does something," said Lucho Moran of Lima, grinning as he moved sacks of guano by cable onto a barge. "It's busy."

Other workers say the job pays well, and they eat free.

Unfazed by the odor and grit, 100 to 150 men work 12-hour days that begin with breakfast at 3:30 a.m.

Workers wear powder from the ruddy dirt like uniforms as they hurl pickaxes into the soil and shovel raw dung, known as "guano bruto." They collect on average 77 tons of guano a day.

Then they sift it over metal mesh to extract the smaller particles that make the grade for fertilizer, which is then bagged and piled onto barges headed to the port of Pisco.

Most guano is used in the fields of Peru, where it costs a fraction of chemical fertilizer.

But about 20 percent is shipped to France, Italy and the United States, said operations manager Cesar A. Teran, where it is a favorite among organic gardeners.