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World News Quick Take

■ RUSSIA

Vodka run goes awry

An apparently drunk tank driver rammed his 25-tonne fighting machine into a remote village cottage while on a vodka run, footage aired on state television showed on Friday. The soldier was filmed driving the tank, armed with an anti-aircraft gun, through a tiny street in Oktyabrskaya, in the Ural mountains' Sverdlovsk region. He clambered unsteadily into his vehicle with two freshly purchased bottles, then rammed a fence and a house while attempting to leave. "He was drunk," a villager said on Channel One television. An assistant at the local shop said the soldier had purchased two bottles of vodka.



■ UNITED STATES

Stylist shoots customer

A hairstylist shot an unhappy client after she complained about her haircut, police in Washington, Pennsylvania, said. Lauren Newton, 28, was getting her hair cut on Thursday at the home of Monique Reed when the two began to argue about the style, police said. "She [Reed] went to the bedroom, got a gun, fired a shot in the ceiling," Police Chief James Blyth said. Newton, who was trying to flee with her sister, was then shot in the lower back, he said. Reed, 38, was charged with aggravated assault and reckless endangerment. Newton's injuries were not considered life threatening.



■ CYPRUS

UK soldiers run from police

Five British soldiers dodged police warning shots, crashed a car and jumped into the sea after they were targeted as drug suspects, officials said on Friday. "It would appear that these soldiers were in the wrong place at the wrong time and it's a case of mistaken identity," British Forces Cyprus spokesman Captain Nick Ulvert said. The men involved -- aged between 19 and 24 -- serve with the Princess of Wales Royal Regiment. The ordeal near a holiday resort took place late on Thursday when they were seen "behaving suspiciously" in an area under surveillance by an anti-drug squad, police said.



■ RUSSIA

Electricity stations raided

Residents of a town fed up with electricity cuts took the law -- and guns -- into their own hands to get power restored, officials said on Friday. More than 50 men with firearms stormed five electricity substations in Makhachkala, capital of Dagestan, the electricity company said. A number of workers were beaten in the assault, which took place on Thursday, and one woman was taken to a hospital with a broken jaw, the company said. "It is an insolent attack on energy workers doing their jobs and should not be left unpunished," said Magomed Kaitov, general director of the grid.



■ UNITED KINGDOM

ead rodent stops surgery

A patient was told there was no reason why he couldn't have surgery in a hospital, despite the stench caused by a dead rodent trapped in the building's ceiling. Andrew Cowper was due to have an operation at the Queen Elizabeth II hospital in Hertfordshire when staff "were made aware of a dead rodent in the single story unit's roof space," the hospital said. The hospital said its experts concluded that the dead animal posed no risk. Cowper, 19, told the Sun newspaper he had waited 11 months for the operation. "I asked [the doctor]: 'If you were me, would you have the operation?' He looked at me and said 'no,' so I decided there and then I wasn't going to go ahead."



■ CANADA

Mother throws kids to safety

A Montreal mother saved her seven children from a blazing apartment fire overnight by tossing them from a second-floor window into deep snowbanks, officials said on Friday. At just past midnight, flames and smoke from the fire believed to have started in the basement trapped the family. Desperate, the woman turned to the only available exit, tossing her children aged one to 10 years old out of her apartment window into the fluffy snow 5m below. At least one child dropped into the waiting arms of a neighbor, said reports. Officials said one toddler was in critical condition, while his siblings were being treated in a hospital for second and third-degree burns.



■ CANADA

Premature proposal

A man thought he had come up with the perfect romantic setting to propose to his high school sweetheart until airport security got involved. Aaron Tkachuk, 24, had intended to propose to girlfriend Jennifer Rubadeau during a Caribbean cruise last week, but instead had to pop the question at a security screening station at the Prince George, British Columbia, airport. An airport screener checking Tkachuk's carry-on luggage spotted a small box in the toe of a sock -- insisted on having a closer look and pulled out a white gold, diamond and ruby ring. Tkachuk proposed on the spot, and his dazed 24-year-old girlfriend said yes as fellow travelers and security staff applauded.



■ CANADA

Woman has identical triplets

A couple has shattered the odds with the birth of naturally conceived, identical triplets. Thea and Phil Willson became the proud parents of Daniella, Alexis and Gemma on Feb. 29. Naturally born identical triplets are born at a rate of one in 20 million, said Michael Bernard of Fraser Health, the health authority that oversees the New Westminster hospital where the babies were delivered. Most triplets are conceived with the help of fertility drugs, but the Willsons did it naturally. Thea Willson took it in stride as she joked about her new family. "We've always wanted to have more than one. So we had them all at once," she said.



■ MEXICO

Police caught with cash

Soldiers caught six local police chiefs red-handed at a gas station sporting luxury watches and carrying envelopes stuffed with wads of cash, the army said on Friday. Soldiers in the northern state of Tamaulipas rushed to the gas station after a tip-off that members of the powerful Gulf drug cartel were there. They detained six men who turned out to be municipal police commanders for suspicious activity, the army said. Searches of the men produced six envelopes filled with thousands of dollars each as well as Rolex and Cartier watches, priced far beyond the means of police salaries, the army said.



■ UNITED STATES

Kitten crosses Pacific Ocean

A scrawny, black and white female kitten apparently survived a trip across the Pacific Ocean and North America inside a shipping crate. Cleveland Animal Protective League executive director Sharon Harvey said a Cleveland company that received the crate of spooled steel coil on Friday found the approximately 12-week-old kitten inside one the spools. Harvey says the mother cat and other kittens found in the crate were dead. The crate came to Samsel Supply Co from Singapore. It was sealed on Feb. 4 and shipped three days later. The kitten will be quarantined for about three weeks to make sure it doesn't carry any infectious diseases.
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