Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe France plagued by zoo robbers PARIS, July 25 (UPI) -- French zoos are battling rustlers who have made off with penguins, kangaroos, and flamingoes, a report said. Advertisement Michel Louis, director of the Amneville zoo in Moselle told the Independent despite 24-hour security, he recently lost 12 Chilean flamingoes to animal thieves. "Only the lions are safe. Elephants are only a matter of time," he said. Penguins were stolen from a zoo in Vendee on the Atlantic coast, parrots and monkeys vanished at Aix-en-Provence and monkeys, falcons, a vulture and kangaroos disappeared from Saint-Aignan-sur-Cher in the center of the country. "What makes me sick is that flamingoes are very nervous birds which cannot stand any stress," Louis said. "Some of them are sure to have died of heart attacks while being carried away." Some rare breeds of parrots can be sold on the black market for $24,000 each. Flamingoes fetch up to $3,500. Advertisement Untried inmate released after 54 years GUWAHATI, India, July 25 (UPI) -- A 77-year-old man Indian man has been released from prison after 54 years without access to a trial. Machang Lalung was arrested in 1951 in his native village of Silsang for "causing grievous hurt," but through a series of bureaucratic mishaps, never went before a court. Initially, prosecutors said there was no evidence to support the allegation, and within a year of his arrest, he was transferred to a psychiatric institution. In 1967, authorities certified Lalung as "fully fit" and said they intended to release him, the BBC reported. However, he was transferred to another jail. Last year, local human rights activists brought his case to the attention of the National Human Rights Commission, which took up the case. In ordering Lalung's release, Magistrate H.K. Sarma lashed out at the "snail-paced and inefficient" legal system. "Neither the executive nor the judiciary avoid responsibility for Machang Lalung's detention for so long on the grounds of mere procedure or technicalities," Sarma said. Discredited blind woman sues bank NEW YORK, July 25 (UPI) -- A blind New York woman is suing a bank that refused to open a checking account for her, based on doubts she could handle a debit card. Advertisement Jaydene Williams, a 20-year-old gospel singer, told the New York Post she went to the Emigrant Savings Bank in March, and was questioned by a teller about whether she could handle a checking account and whether she could use a debit card at ATMs. The teller called in a supervisor, who told Williams "she would be a liability because of the way information is entered into the system," the lawsuit says. The bank did allow Williams to open a savings account, but said they'd get back to her about the checking account, but never did. "It was just like a shock to me that someone would tell me that I can't open an account because they think I can't press buttons, said Williams. German feel-good book not so accurate BERLIN, July 25 (UPI) -- A new German schoolbook that claims Germans invented just about everything has come under ridicule as inaccurate by the German media. "German Stars: 50 Innovations Everyone Should Know About" is being shipped to schools and universities this week as part of a self-esteem building plan by the government and industry. It claims Manfred von Ardenne invented the television in 1930, and not John Logie Baird, the Independent reported. It denies Thomas Edison invented light bulbs, and states Heinrich Gobel did in 1854. Advertisement "We're honestly not trying to claim the Germans invented everything", said Lars Heitmuller of Fischer Appelt, the Berlin-based PR agency that produced the book. "We thought it was a good idea to remind the Germans of that and let them know it's OK to feel good about it." However, Der Spiegel magazine this week denounced the book as "outrageous nonsense," based on the claim Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press. "It is well documented that the Chinese invented this 300 years earlier," the magazine said.
