UPI NewsTrack Quirks in the News

False alarm ends White House briefing

WASHINGTON, Feb. 29 (UPI) -- White House Deputy Press Secretary Gordon Johndroe's briefing to reporters in Washington was cut short Friday by a false fire alarm.

Johndroe joked that he was responsible for the ear-piercing interruption.

"There's a button up here on the new podium," he said, prompting one reporter to quip, "It's an easy way to get out of a briefing."

Johndroe was giving his first career press gaggle briefing at the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room in the West Wing of the White House when the alarm went off and reporters had to evacuate for a few minutes, The Washington Times reported.

Italian police seize fake Ferraris

CAMPOBELLO DI LICATA, Italy, Feb. 29 (UPI) -- Italian police said they have seized seven counterfeit Ferraris from a Mafia-run factory in Campobello di Licata on the island of Sicily.

Police said engineers at the factory used photographs of the expensive vehicles to turn secondhand cars into Ferrari replicas, The Telegraph reported Friday. They said they have also seized 14 cars that were already on the road in the cities of Milan, Rome and Puglia.

Investigators said the cars were sold over the Internet, primarily to "businessmen" who were aware the cars were fakes and frequently rented them out.

The counterfeit cars, which were often converted from Pontiac Fieros, were easy to distinguish from genuine Ferraris, however, because the frauds have thinner wheels, narrower chassis and make a different engine sounds than the real thing.

"The sound of the Pontiac's V4 engine is nothing like the Ferrari 348GTS's V8 which it would be turned into," said Francesco Carofiglio, who headed the law enforcement operation.

Loose goose scares neighborhood

CHICO, Calif., Feb. 29 (UPI) -- Police in Chico, Calif., were called Thursday to subdue a cantankerous goose which terrorized a neighborhood and briefly trapped one woman in her home.

Susie Tambe told officers that when she went to investigate a honking sound outside her home she and her dog were chased back inside by the threatening bird and they stayed there until police arrived.

She told the Chico Enterprise Record the bird would alternately lunge at the screen door and chase any neighbors who came near her home.

One of the responding officers said she owned geese and knew how to handle them. After a futile effort to hem in the bird, the officer grabbed it by the neck and put it in her patrol car.

Animal control officers said the goose probably was someone's pet looking for a handout. It was released at Horseshoe Lake in Bidwell Park.

Shepherd to sue over rocket fragment

NOVOSIBIRSK, Russia, Feb. 29 (UPI) -- A southern Siberian shepherd plans to sue Russia for $40,000 in damages stemming from the fall of an 11-foot fragment of a space rocket into his yard.

Boris Urmatov of the Altai Republic wasn't hit but said the Feb. 5 incident frightened him and his children, Novosti reported.

The incident occurred after the launch of a Proton-M carrier rocket from the Baikonur space center leased by Russia in nearby Kazakhstan.