UPI NewsTrack Quirks in the News

Golfers have to make way for tadpoles

SAN FRANCISCO, March 19 (UPI) -- A San Francisco municipal golf course has been blocked from draining a temporary pond on the back nine that has become a home to tadpoles.

The tadpoles are those of the threatened red-legged frog, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. The frogs also happen to be food for an endangered species, the San Francisco garter snake.

As a result, golfers at Sharp Park Golf Course in Pacifica, which is owned by the city of San Francisco, have had to play around the pond until the tadpoles mature into frogs. They are protected by the Endangered Species Act.

Manager Mark Duane said that closing some holes has cost the course business.

"We have a lot of people befuddled by the lack of action of the city, but we have an obligation to uphold the law," said Rose Dennis, a spokeswoman for the city Recreation and Park Department.

The tadpoles have now gone through their metamorphosis and the pond has been drained until its next appearance.

"There's plenty of room for everybody, golfers and snakes like," Duane said.

Fire in Mexico dirties rain in Texas

SAN ANTONIO, March 19 (UPI) -- A major fire in central Mexico was responsible for rust-colored rain falling on San Antonio, the National Weather Service said Wednesday.

The dirty rain fell late Tuesday afternoon, the San Antonio Express-News reported. While the rain was welcome, residents were perplexed by and worried about its rust color.

Joe Baskin, a National Weather Service forecaster, said the color was nothing to worry about. He said smoke and ash had been carried from the fire near Mexico City.

"It's kind of unusual to have ash mixed in with rain," Baskin said. "It doesn't happen often. This stuff will push on through."

Any stains the rain caused on cars or windows should wash right off, Baskin said, and the ash was unlikely to cause any health problems.

Conman posed as his lawyer to cheat woman

BOURNEMOUTH, England, March 19 (UPI) -- A British conman who used his own lawyer's identity for a scam while he was awaiting trial has been sentenced to three years in prison.

Roy Moyse appeared in Bournemouth Crown Court for sentencing Tuesday. He was convicted of swindling several victims out of 115,000 pounds ($230,000).

Investigators said most of Moyse's victims were women he met in bars and pubs. Once he had become friendly with his victims, he would claim to need money for a down payment on an apartment while he was waiting for an inheritance.

In one of his last cons, Moyse used his own lawyer's name. The victim learned she had been swindled when she called the lawyer's office.

"This man is a danger to any women in their 40s' in the Bournemouth area, both financially and emotionally," said Roger Doerr, the police officer in charge of the investigation. "He was a creature of nightclubs and pubs and chatted up women in order to milk them out of thousands of pounds. He toyed with their emotions before ripping them off, cleaning them out and moving on to the next victim."

Man says flies in water wrecked sex drive

OTTAWA, March 19 (UPI) -- Canada's Supreme Court agreed to consider an appeal by a man who says he suffered psychological and sexual damages after finding flies in his bottled water.

The nine judges agreed Tuesday in Ottawa to consider the case of Waddah Mustapha, who claims he and his wife found an entire dead fly and part of another one in a large bottle of water they received from the Culligan water company in November 2001.

He said they made the find as they were cleaning the neck of the bottle before they opened it.

He sued Culligan, claiming the discovery sparked depression, anxiety, a phobia of water that affected his work at his Windsor, Ontario, hair salon and also damaged his sex life, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp., reported.

The Ontario Superior Court awarded the man $341,775 plus interest in the case in 2005, but that was overturned a year later.

"We all know flies of that kind, with the blue butts -- they land on feces and dead rats on the side of the road and end up in the water," Mustapha said.