Pigeon pants

Sydney, Feb. 3: An Australian man was arrested after he was caught trying to bring two pigeons into the country hidden in his trousers, reports The Daily Telegraph.

The 23-year-old man was stopped by customs officials at Melbourne airport after he disembarked a flight from Dubai. The officers searched his bags and allegedly found a vitamin container containing two bird eggs.

A further search revealed he was wearing tights under his trousers, with a live pigeon stuffed into each leg. The birds were wrapped in padded envelopes, but had little else to protect them during the 10-hour flight. It is illegal to bring wildlife into Australia.

Gold sewer

Tokyo: Japan may be struggling with a deepening recession, rising job losses and tumbling stocks but an unusual source of wealth has been found in a rather unlikely place — the sewers, reports The Daily Telegraph. A sewage treatment facility in Nagano prefecture, northwest of Tokyo, has reported a yield of gold extracted from sludge to rival production levels at some of the best mines in the world. Tens of thousands of pounds worth of gold has been found at the Suwa treatment facility in the past year.

Organ vase

London: A terracotta vase which stood on a garden patio for 20 years is actually an ancient Egyptian relic dating back 3,000 years, reports The Daily Telegraph. The 13-inch high ornament with its distinctive pharaoh headdress was originally designed to hold the internal organs of the dead as part of the mummification process. The canopic jar, complete with cover, was left outside in a garden in north Dorset until its owner decided to have it valued. The piece was dated between 1550-1069 BC and is now being sold at the auction house Duke’s in Dorchester.

Tree ban

London: Council officials want to ban children at a nursery from playing under a tree because they claim they will damage the roots by trampling on the ground, reports The Daily Telegraph. Officers are applying for a permanent preservation order on the 30-year-old cedar to safeguard it from damage. Parents have called for common sense and say that the children — aged two to four — exert too little pressure to cause any harm and will be too restricted in where they can play if they are not allowed under the tree.