oddly enough

oddly enough

Man jailed in game of ‘chicken’ with police

GREENSBURG, Pa.

A western Pennsylvania man is jailed on charges that he ran a state trooper off the road while playing a game of “chicken” with his wife in the car.

Online court records don’t list an attorney for 44-year-old William Schanz, of Smithton, who has been jailed since his arrest early Tuesday afternoon.

The Pittsburgh Tribune- Review reported Wednesday that Schanz was driving his pickup south on Route 981 when he aimed the vehicle at a state police cruiser headed north. Trooper Christopher Egidi had to swerve to avoid the truck and gave chase, eventually pulling over Schanz on Interstate 70 several miles away.

Police say Schanz’s wife was crying and says her husband told her he “wanted to die, and she was going to die with him” while playing “chicken.”

Pope gets rare, scaled visitor at audience

VATICAN CITY

Pope Benedict XVI received a rare, scaly visitor Wednesday during his weekly general audience: an endangered Cuban crocodile.

Officials from Rome’s Bioparco zoo presented the 84-year-old pontiff with the young croc at the end of Wednesday’s audience. Zoo official Yitzhak Yadid held the iguana-sized reptile in his hands as Benedict looked on.

The Cuban crocodile, or crocodylus rhombifer, has seen its numbers fall by 80 percent in recent years and currently only survives in Cuba’s Zapata and Isle of Youth swamps. It is classified as endangered by the United Nations convention on endangered species.

The croc who attended the papal audience had been seized by Italian forestry authorities late last year after it was discovered in an Italian private collection, zoo officials said. Forestry authorities handed it over to the zoo for safekeeping and rehabilitation.

The animal will be returned to Cuba in March, coinciding with Benedict’s planned trip to the island.

The Cuban crocodile can reach 3.5 meters in length when fully grown. Benedict’s 40-centimeter-long visitor is believed to be about four years old.

Rome zoo officials brought the animal to the papal audience to show off the zoo’s conservation efforts as it celebrates its centennial.

Police arrest felon with gun in her bra

PHOENIX

A convicted felon was arrested by police in a Phoenix suburb after telling officers that she was hiding a handgun in her bra.

Angela Lynn Milhoan is not allowed to possess a firearm. But police in Mesa, Ariz., say the 20-year-old admitted to concealing a .22-caliber semi-automatic handgun in her undergarments when a car she was riding in was stopped by officers early Tuesday.

The Arizona Republic reports that police had stopped the car while looking for a suspect on a weapons violation warrant.

Associated Press