Jockstrip: The world as we know it.

Temporary home sought for polar bears

ST. PAUL, Minn., Jan. 30 (UPI) -- Neil and Buzz, the popular polar bears at Como Zoo in St. Paul, Minn., won't be vacationing in Buffalo, N.Y., after all, it was reported Wednesday.

Zoo officials had thought they had a deal to send the bruins to the Buffalo Zoo for up to two years while their digs at the Como Zoo get a makeover. But the St. Paul Pioneer Press reports Buffalo Zoo officials decided Tuesday it was too expensive a proposition.

Como officials are contacting zoos across the country looking for an alternative temporary home for the bears.

Prince Philip blanks on Cate Blanchett

LONDON, Jan. 30 (UPI) -- Prince Philip mistook Oscar-winner Cate Blanchett for a DVD technician at a social gathering, the newspaper said.

Instead of recognizing the actress for her film work in which she played Elizabeth I two times, the 86-year-old duke of Edinburgh asked her for advice on how to plug in his broken DVD player, the Daily Mail reported Wednesday.

"The duke of Edinburgh meets so many people when he is escorting the queen on engagements. These are often film stars, actors and actresses. I cannot recall an occasion recently when he might have met Miss Blanchett but we do not always get guest lists for every engagement or social function," a spokesman said.

The prince reportedly has a reputation for social faux pas.

"If you stay here much longer, you'll all be slitty-eyed," the prince reportedly once said to some British students who were visiting China.

Woman votes absentee after death

ST. LOUIS, Jan. 30 (UPI) -- An official in St. Louis said an absentee ballot in the name of a dead woman was cast in the city as part of Missouri's presidential primary.

Scott Leiendecker, the Republican director for the St. Louis Election Board, said officials believe the ballot was filled out by the woman's son, who apparently signed the ballot with an "X" and signed his own name as a witness, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Wednesday. The woman has been dead since October.

Leiendecker said the case has been turned over to the Department of Justice. He said the alleged fraudulent ballot was one about 2,000 absentee ballots cast in the city, the newspaper reported.

The official said the incident illustrates the success of the city's voter fraud prevention system.

"I think the message is out there that this is not something to joke about," Leiendecker said. "We have really good people watching and have good checks and balances in place."

Siblings win $10,000 in icy treasure hunt

ST. PAUL, Minn., Jan. 30 (UPI) -- A brother-sister team from Wisconsin braved 40-below-zero wind chills in the dark early Wednesday to win the St. Paul (Minn.) Winter Carnival Treasure Hunt.

Andrew Burke, 21, of Knapp, Wis., and his sister, Jessica French, 26, of Baldwin, Wis., won $10,000 plus $1,200 in groceries for finding the medallion hidden in St. Paul's Mounds Regional Park under a fallen tree shortly after midnight, reported the St. Paul Pioneer Press, which sponsored the 57th annual mid-winter treasure hunt.

The siblings, in just their second year trying their hand at the competition, found the medallion, wrapped in a 3M Highland Invisible Tape carton and wrapped in plastic, soon after the newspaper published the 11th clue of the 12-clue hunt.

Burke, a University of Wisconsin-Stout student, told newspaper officials he was "excited, stoked" when he realized their good fortune. He said he and his sister had spent up to eight hours a night searching for the medallion.

"A lot of clues still don't make a lot of sense to me," Burke said.