UPI NewsTrack Quirks in the News

U.K. court bans bad neighbor from his home

BOLTON, England, Jan. 10 (UPI) -- A man jailed in Bolton, England, for harassing his neighbors for five years has been banned from living in his own house when he's released.

Magistrates ruled Carl Bridson, 40, could only return to his home at certain times but could not sleep there, The Times of London reported.

Bridson was jailed in November for a 6-month term for violating a restraining order obtained by neighbors Andrew and Janette Pennington.

The court heard how the couple endured five years of abusive behavior and vandalism by Bridson, which they said they couldn't understand.

The couple said Bridson would blast music toward their home at all hours and hammer on walls. Other acts of vandalism reported to police included black currant syrup being poured into their car's open sunroof and a flooded conservatory because a rain spout had been redirected, the report said.

The couple erected a security camera but that was shot down with an air rifle, the couple said.

"We didn't know what his problem was," Andrew Pennington said. "We have never been able to put our finger on it."

Principal offers reward for food fighters

COLUMBIA, Md., Jan. 10 (UPI) -- A lunchroom food fight at a Maryland high school went too far -- and the school's principal offered a reward to anyone naming the participants.

The offer of a $30 reward -- which wasn't paid -- drew criticism from Wilde Lake High School students. Now school officials are rethinking whether such a monetary offer was a good idea, The Baltimore Sun reported Thursday.

The editor of the high school's newspaper said in a commentary the need to assign blame has had the unintended effect of "immortalizing the incident."

Principal Restia Whitaker posted the $30 incentive for information on those who flung food in the December incident, which officials said escalated to an unsafe -- and quite messy -- situation.

Food wasn't the only projectile zipping around the the Columbia, Md., school lunchroom.

"There were water bottles, trays and utensils," Howard County school system spokeswoman Patti Caplan said. "It got to be very dangerous."

The issue of offering a cash reward would be on the agenda at the district's next principals' meeting.

A nameless woman's lost ring was found

GREEN BAY, Wis., Jan. 10 (UPI) -- Police found the missing gem of a Wisconsin woman who was driven by a lover's quarrel to chuck her engagement ring into the snow.

Police discovered the woman searching for the ring with a flashlight in a restaurant parking lot but have since found no way to relocate the nameless ring owner, Green Bay (Wis.) Press-Gazette reported Thursday.

Following a rise in temperatures, Green Bay police reportedly checked the lot Tuesday and discovered the ring, which had been missing since the couple's New Year's Eve squabble.

The cops want to give the ring back and are hoping she comes to claim the jewel, the newspaper said.

Blood paintings by Georgia artist shown

KENNESAW, Ga., Jan. 10 (UPI) -- A Georgia artist exhibited paintings prepared with human blood to raise awareness about AIDS.

Artist Robert Sherer, said that he paints with uninfected blood as well as blood that has tested positive for HIV to help raise awareness to the virus, WGCL-TV, Atlanta reported Thursday.

Sherer went to the exhibit opening, which featured his works at Kennesaw State University in Georgia, on Wednesday.

"I look at the flower (in a painting) as a person with AIDS and the thorns and barbed wires as the virus they have that's attacking them," Sherer said of the work he does with blood belonging to himself and an HIV-positive friend.

Sherrer told sources that he feels that if he can touch one person with his art, he has done his job.