ILFRACOMBE, England, May 19 (UPI) -- A British woman said she turned her beloved, recently deceased cat into a one-third-of-a-carat black diamond ring with the help of a U.S. firm.

Sue Rogers, 45, said she was so distraught over the death of her 11-year-old cat, Sooty, that normal avenues of memorial didn't seem special enough for her beloved pet, The Telegraph reported Monday.

Scientists with Chicago's LifeGem said they created the diamond by extracting 2 grams of carbon from 100 grams of the cat's ashes. They placed the carbon in a diamond press, where it was submitted to more than 1 million pounds of pressure and temperatures reaching 5,432 degrees Fahrenheit.

Rogers told The Telegraph the black diamond, thought to be the only such jewel in the world made from animal ashes, was cut, polished and set in a gold band. She said the item cost her more than $4,000.

"I asked the company if they did black diamonds and they said they had never done one before. But thankfully they were able to and now Sooty is a black diamond," Rogers said to the newspaper. "They use ashes, but not all of them, so it is still possible to scatter some ashes in the traditional way as well."

Cookie crash closes highway

MORRIS, Ill., May 19 (UPI) -- Illinois police said they had to close several lanes of a highway after a truck carrying Oreos rammed into the median, scattering cookies all over the road.

The cookie spill took place early Monday on Interstate 80 near Morris, Ill., said Master Sgt. Brian Mahoney of the Illinois State Police.

The truck was transporting about 20,000 pounds of Oreo cookies when the accident occurred, the Chicago Tribune reported.

It is reported the force of the crash caused the trailer to fall open and all the cookies to fly onto the highway's eastbound lanes.

The truck driver suffered no injuries, but the highway was shut down for massive cookie clean-up, which lasted several hours, Mahoney said.

Authorities said they are looking into what prompted the incident.

Photographer hit by javelin keeps working

PROVO, Utah, May 19 (UPI) -- A persistent Utah photographer proved he was no cry baby when he returned to work the same day he was hit by a javelin while taking pictures at a track meet.

Ryan McGeeney, 33, an intern at the Ogden (Utah) Standard-Examiner, returned to finish shooting a track championship Saturday at Brigham Young University's stadium in Provo, Utah, after a javelin pierced his leg, the newspaper reported.

"There was the kind of tight feeling in the skin where I could say, 'oh yeah, it went through me,' but it wasn't real painful," he said. "It was pretty embarrassing. I just felt like a jackass."

McGeeny, who is a seven-year veteran of the U.S. Marines, including six months service in Afghanistan, was taken to the hospital for treatment, stitched up and returned to the meet within hours to finish the job.

Boston police adopt high-tech sirens

BOSTON, May 19 (UPI) -- Boston's police force has become the latest in the country to trade in old-fashioned car sirens for noisemakers that send sound waves directly into cars.

The Rumbler sirens, which are currently used by at least 150 U.S. police departments, make the familiar police siren sounds, but also send out low-frequency sound waves designed to grab the attention of drivers distracted by loud music or other competing sounds, the Boston Globe reported Monday.

Boston Police Superintendent-in-chief Robert Dunford said the Rumbler's sound wave is powerful enough to be heard by motorists well before the police vehicle using the Rumbler approaches.

"This gives them advanced warning that there is an emergency vehicle that needs to get out of the intersection," Dunford said.