Ostrich rampage

Nicosia, Nov. 9 (Reuters): A runaway ostrich that eluded police caused severe damage when it attacked a Mercedes car during a three-hour rampage.

“Somehow it got out of its pen. We sent two patrols after it, but in the meantime it caused some damage to the bonnet and bumper of a Mercedes before we caught it,” a police official in Cyprus said. The ostrich caused considerable damage when it pounced on the car, the daily Phileleftheros reported. The ostrich is the largest of birds and can weigh at least 180 kg. It is also the fastest creature on two legs and can run up to 70 kmph per hour. “It took us more than three hours to catch it,” the police said.

Awesome art auction

New York (Reuters): A Christie’s sale of post-war and contemporary art met its advance billing as the biggest auction of its kind on Tuesday, with a Mark Rothko oil painting setting a new world record of $22.4 million for any post-war work at auction. New marks were also set for artists Roy Lichtenstein, Francis Bacon and several others, as the auction house achieved the highest total for the increasingly lucrative post-war and contemporary market, selling $157.4 million. That exceeded the presale high-end estimate of $145 million. Christie's honorary chairman Christopher Burge, who served as the evening's auctioneer, said the bidding at all price levels was“incredibly buoyant.”