Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe Russian disco granny credits the herbs MOSCOW, Nov. 8 (UPI) -- A 70-year-old Russian grandmother who calls herself "a real party animal" is promoting culture by throwing disco parties for teenagers in a small village. Advertisement In the small, remote town of Bolshiye Otary, east of Moscow, Yuliya Ryabinina is the director of culture. She told Russia's Channel One TV she found the best way to communicate with teens is popular music and dancing -- just as long as it's not traditional Russian music. She spends hours recording international pop music from her short wave radio and hosts disco nights at the community center, where she says a potion of herbs and roots gives her the energy to keep up with the younger ones. "My feet and arms start moving and I just want to dance," she told the network. And as DJs in other countries do, she adopted a stage name, incorporating the familiar Russian word for grandmother into DJ Baba Yuliya. Advertisement She also reportedly spends a considerable amount of time on her makeup before each dance, the BBC said. Gender mutiny for Bounty mutineer progeny ADAMSTOWN, Pitcairn, Nov. 8 (UPI) -- Pitcairn Island, famously settled by mutineers from the HMS Bounty, gained their first female leader in their 214-year history. British authorities running the 47-member island fired Steve Christian as mayor after he refused to resign, the BBC reported Monday. The island's governing council replaced him with his sister Brenda, who will hold the post until a formal election on Dec. 15. She had been the island's police officer. Her brother was one of six island men convicted in October of rapes and sex attacks spanning four decades. Christian himself was convicted of five rapes and sentenced to three years in prison. His son, Randy, also was convicted of sex crimes and sacked as chairman of a key island committee. The defendants are appealing their convictions, claiming Britain does not have authority over the island. If unsuccessful, convicts sentenced to jail will serve their time in an island cellblock they built themselves. Drunk thief gets stuck, calls tow truck SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 8 (UPI) -- A California man who got drunk, stole a fire truck and got it stuck in the mud then did the next obvious thing: call for a tow truck. Advertisement But instead of a tow truck, Claud Gipson-Reynolds got highway patrol troopers, who did the next obvious thing: lock him up. The 36-year-old Santa Rosa resident had been fighting with his wife when he went on a binge and got his car stuck in the mud Friday night, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. He broke into a nearby volunteer fire station and drove one of its trucks through the garage door and over to his vehicle so he could pull it out of the mud. But then he got that stuck, too. "I could probably get on that show, 'World's Dumbest Criminals,'" Gipson-Reynolds said Saturday from his Santa Rosa home after bailing out of jail on charges of vehicle theft and drunken driving. Rabbit havoc in Alaska PALMER, Alaska, Nov. 8 (UPI) -- Neighbors of a Palmer, Alaska, couple are unhappy with the dozens, if not hundreds, of rabbits they care for on their four-acre property. Four years ago, Leon and Anna Calton kept several rabbits in pens, but a dog broke into the pens and several rabbits escaped, but not before the dog had lunch with a mother rabbit and 11 of her babies, the Anchorage Daily News reported Monday. Advertisement The Caltons let the five or so surviving rabbits run free, but they fed them and provided shelter. Since then, the handful of rabbits have thrived and reproduced -- two rabbits can become a dozen within a month. Anna Calton said the rabbits have a better chance of escaping predators if they are free. But neighbor Cheryl Milbrett said the rabbits are luring lynx, fox, owls, eagles and coyotes to the neighborhood -- and there's even been a bear sighting. Alaska has a year-round open season on domesticated rabbits and Milbrett said they hear shooting constantly. "... It's a residential neighborhood, people shooting .22s isn't a good idea," she said.
