Around the Globe

Can you see your shadow? No, I see...a beautiful bright light!

Wiarton Willy, the 22-year-old Canadian groundhog who spent his life predicting winter's end, stunned the nation by dying the night before Tues., Feb. 2--Groundhog Day. "He died from old age. He hasn't been well," Wiarton spokesperson Tara Wilson said.

Wilson said that, before leaving for Groundhog Heaven, Willy predicted an early spring and told the people of Wiarton to "get a life."

Old people are funny I

A middle-aged Croatian man stabbed himself with a butcher's knife, set his apartment on fire, and then jumped out of a first-floor window. He survived.

Neighbors said Josip Tusek, 55, had complained about breathing difficulties, but doctors refused to treat him. He then announced that he would perform the operation himself. When the "surgery" failed, he apparently despaired and tried to kill himself.

Remarkably, all Tusek now has to show for his troubles are a cut on his stomach and a broken leg.

Old people are funny II

An elderly woman from Budapest, Hungary, was recently rescued from her pantry. She had been trapped there for a month.

The woman locked herself in on Tues., Dec. 22, after the outside handle fell off the door. Her disappearance went unnoticed for four weeks, until a neighbor finally heard her cries.

The woman reported that she subsisted on bottled fruit and tomato juice on the shelves. Unfortunately, this diet is very high in fiber.

Baa-ram-you!

A flock of sheep killed a British farmer's wife last week by pushing her over a cliff near Durham, in northeast England. She rode a small motorbike along the edge of an abandoned quarry to feed the animals with a fresh bale of hay. "I saw the sheep surround the bike," a neighbor told reporters. "The next thing, she was tumbling down the incline."

--Compiled by Andrew Swan from Reuters.

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