UPI NewsTrack Quirks in the News

28-pound cat diets after getting stuck

SCARBOROUGH, England, Feb. 15 (UPI) -- A Scarborough, England, pet owner said she is putting her fat cat on a diet after he gained so much weight that he became stuck in a cat door.

Molly Oliver said her cat, Sooty, who currently weighs in at about 28 pounds, gained weight rapidly during the past two months, the Daily Mirror reported Friday.

"The last straw was when he got stuck in the cat flap and couldn't go outside," Oliver said.

She said the 6-year-old tubby tomcat has been packing on the pounds despite the moderate amounts of food she gives him.

"Although he loves meat, I feed him exactly the same amount as any other cat," she said. "I think some people have been leaving food out for him."

Oliver said Sooty has been put on a meat-free diet comprised mostly of low-calorie biscuits.

World's fattest man loses 570 pounds

MONTERREY, Mexico, Feb. 15 (UPI) -- The Guinness Book of Records' fattest man has lost 570 pounds, which was half of his body weight, a report said.

Manuel Uribe, 42, of Monterrey, Mexico, lost the weight after going on a low-carbohydrate diet for two years, the Telegraph (Britain) reported Friday.

After Uribe asked for help losing the weight on national television, nutritionists and doctors from the United States and Mexico put him on a high-protein diet and workout routine.

"I'm going to throw a big party. I'm getting out of my house and going for a walk," Uribe said.

Uribe, who has been confined to his bed since 2002, accepted the help from U.S. and Mexican experts after refusing to have a gastric bypass operation suggested by Italian and Spanish medics, the report said.

Uribe is reportedly scheduled to be lifted from his home by a crane for a celebratory ride around town on a truck March 9.

Released inmates stranded on way home

CORSICANA, Texas, Feb. 15 (UPI) -- Forty released prison inmates were stranded at a convenience store in a small Texas town when their bus driver reached the end of her allotted driving time.

Sgt. Lamoin Lawhon of the Corsicana, Texas, Police Dept. said he found the men, a mix of parolees and convicts who had completed their sentences, anxious about getting to Dallas, their scheduled destination and 60 miles away, the Corsicana Daily Sun reported. Some were worried about missing appointments with parole officers, and Lawhon was able to reassure them that the Department of Corrections knew where they were.

"In 31 years in law enforcement, I've never seen anything like this," he said.

The Corrections Department had chartered the bus to drive the men from the prison in Huntsville to Dallas. A spokesman for Greyhound said that the company is investigating the incident.

The driver ended up traveling to Dallas on the same bus as her former passengers. The company spokesman said that drivers, like airline pilots, are legally limited in the number of hours they can work at a stretch.

Kenyan man sues to get wife back

NAIROBI, Kenya, Feb. 15 (UPI) -- A Mtangani, Kenya, man is asking a traditional court to force his father-in-law to return his wife to him after she remarried several years ago.

Komu Iha also asked the court to give him custody of the woman's four children, who were fathered by her second husband, as well as force the woman's father to pay him $5,000 in addition to "general damages," The Nation in Nairobi reported Friday.

Iha claims his father-in-law conspired to help his wife remarry despite a $70 payment Iha allegedly gave him "as deposit to make sure the girl did not get married elsewhere."

Iha and his wife split years ago when he began living with another woman who bore two of his children, The Nation said.

Stephen Karisa Mwanjenje, the Mtangani village elder and chief judge of the traditional court, said a hearing for the case has been postponed.

"I tried to fix it for hearing and determination this week but received information that the woman's father and current husband had lost a relative. As tradition demands, they have to be at the funeral for seven days. I will fix the date after that," he said.