Feline voyage

London, Nov. 25 (AP): Emerging with a shock of white fur, a cat stunned cargo workers in England as it jumped out of a goods container after a 17-day sea voyage from Israel to Britain, a journey of more than

3,200 km, an animal charity said yesterday.

Animal rescue officials said the stowaway was starving and dehydrated when workers at a warehouse in Whitworth, northwestern England, discovered the unexpected cargo last Friday.

Staff said the cat — named Ziggy because it had eyes of different colours, one green and one blue, like singer David Bowie and his alter-ego Ziggy Stardust — fled from staff when the container was opened, hiding for over five hours.

“I think he was scared to death. He’d travelled all that way and got to a strange country, and ran for his life,” said James Ratcliff, an officer with the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

Fur flies

Beijing (Reuters): A $7,500 fur coat donated by pop diva Mariah Carey and intended for Mongolia’s poor has disappeared, a leading animal rights group said on Thursday. Carey donated the fur coat to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals which said it had since been lost on its way to Mongolia, where it was to be given to nomads to help them keep warm in the winter. “After (Carey) received two floor-length minks from a rich admirer, she resealed the box and sent them to PETA,” a spokesman said. “One coat was on its way ... to Switzerland — where it was to be included in a sealed container bound for Mongolia,” he added. “But the coat never arrived.”

Hack bite

Albuquerque, New Mexico (AP): A woman is accused of using a computer at a national laboratory to hack into a cellphone company’s website to get a number for Chester Bennington, lead singer of the Grammy-winning rock group Linkin Park. According to an affidavit filed by the department of defence inspector general, Devon Townsend, 27, obtained copies of Bennington’s cellphone bill, the phone numbers he called and digital pictures taken with the phone. Investigators said she also hacked into the email of Bennington’s wife, Talinda, and at one point called her and threatened her.

Swing time

Singapore (Reuters): Every two months, dozens of couples meet in a pub in Singapore, have drinks, mingle, and then decide whether they want to sleep with one another. In Sydney or Seattle nobody would bat an eyelid, but the couples are part of a thriving underground swinging scene that is an anomaly for a country where oral sex is illegal and Playboy magazine is banned. There are more than 10 swingers clubs in Singapore, most of them private, some of them online. With more than 6,000 members, the Web-based United SG Swingers is one of the biggest. “There are a lot more people that are open to the idea. ,” said a 42-year-old com pany executive.