ODDLY ENOUGH

ODDLY ENOUGH

Czech political rivals bet $421,000 over Internet betting

PRAGUE

The stakes are running high on the Czech politician scene in a bet between two bitter rivals.

Finance Minister Andrej Babis and his predecessor Miroslav Kalousek usually use strong words in their comments about one another but they took their rivalry to a whole new level Oct. 14.

In a Parliamentary committee debate over the 2016 budget, Kalousek, who is from the conservative TOP 09 party, bet $421,000 that Babis’ allegation that Kalousek was investigated by police over his 2008 decision to allow betting on the Internet was not true.

Babis, who leads the centrist ANO movement and is one of the country’s richest men, accepted that bet.

Both men confirmed their bet to Czech public television, claiming both they’re in a position to win.

Authorities shoot cow running loose on Phoenix-area freeway

PHOENIX

Arizona authorities say an officer was forced to shoot a cow that got loose on a Phoenix-area freeway, stopping traffic.

Department of Public Safety spokesman Bart Graves says the agency received multiple calls around 9:15 p.m. Oct. 14 reporting that a cow was running around the area of U.S. 60 and Interstate 10.

Graves says the cow broke out of a cattle truck that got a flat tire. Troopers say the animal kept heading toward the interstate despite their attempts to deter it.

Graves says that’s when a trooper shot the cow once to prevent it from returning to the freeway. Troopers then led it to a desert area near an exit ramp.

Graves says the cow was later euthanized.

Robble robble robbed: Missing Ronald McDonald statue found

NORTHAMPTON, Mass.

A Ronald McDonald statue hamburgled from a western Massachusetts home during a teenage house party has been found.

The 3-foot high statue of the McDonald’s mascot was turned over to Northampton police Wednesday by a McDonald’s employee who found it next to a trash bin outside a health club. That person turned it over when he read about the missing statue in The Daily Hampshire Gazette.

Mary Ryan says her husband bought the sculpture of a kneeling Ronald from an antique store years ago for $1,200. They think it dates to 1972.

It disappeared in August when their teenage daughter hosted an unauthorized party at their summer home in Leverett. It was seen in a tree and outside the health club, before the trail went cold.

Associated Press