■UNITED STATES
Car crashes into elephant
A couple driving along a rural road at night crashed into an elephant that had escaped from a nearby circus. The couple weren’t injured, but the 2.4m tall, 2,040kg elephant was being examined on Thursday for a broken tusk and a leg wound. A local veterinarian said it appeared to have escaped major injury. Bill Carpenter, 68, said he swerved his sport utility vehicle at the last second and ended up sideswiping the 29-year-old female elephant late on Wednesday on a rural highway in Enid, Oklahoma. “Didn’t have time to hit the brakes. The elephant blended in with the road,” driver Carpenter said on Thursday. “At the very last second I said ‘elephant!’ So help me Hanna, had I hit that elephant, not swerved, it would have knocked it off its legs, and it would have landed right on top of us.” After sideswiping the elephant, his wife, Deena, flagged some people down and used their cell phone to call police. “The dispatcher didn’t believe her: ‘You hit a what?’” Carpenter said.
■UNITED STATES
Police charge snake owner
A man who caught a 4.2m python in a Florida drain pipe was charged with perpetrating a hoax after wildlife officers discovered he owned the snake and put it in the pipe in order to stage the capture. Justin Matthews, a professional animal trapper, later said that he had “staged the event to call attention to a growing problem of irresponsible pet ownership,” the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said on Thursday. Matthews was charged with misusing the 911 emergency system and maintaining captive wildlife in an unsafe manner.
■UNITED STATES
Stolen VW van recovered
A Volkswagen van stolen 35 years ago in Washington state has been found in a shipping container bound for the Netherlands. Customs agents found the 1965 van on Oct. 19 when they opened a shipping container at the Los Angeles/Long Beach seaport, the Spokesman-Review newspaper reported. They ran the vehicle identification number and discovered it was listed as stolen. Law officers said the van, which is in great shape, was stolen from an upholstery shop in Spokane on July 12, 1974 — while Spokane was hosting the 1974 World’s Fair. Authorities have not been able to find the original owner, whom they would not identify. The operators of a vehicle restoration business in Arizona were the latest to have possession of the van, which they refurbished and planned to sell abroad, said Michael Maleta, an investigator with the California Highway Patrol.
■CANADA
Coroners identify foot No. 7
A coroner has identified the seventh severed foot that washed up on the bank of a British Columbia river last month as belonging to Vancouver man who committed suicide. Police said on Thursday the foot belonged to a man reported missing in January last year. The man’s identity is being withheld at the family’s request. The foot, found on Oct. 27, is the seventh severed foot to wash ashore in British Columbia since August 2007.
■CANADA
Royalty visit castle
Prince Charles and Camilla have arrived at a Canadian castle that was home to a distant relative of Camilla, who is the Duchess of Cornwall. The duchess’ great-great-great grandfather Allan Napier MacNab lived in the Dundurn Castle in Hamilton, Ontario. Macnab was pre-Confederation prime minister from 1854 to 1856. MacNab’s family came to Canada from Scotland and he was born in Ontario in 1798.
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