UPI NewsTrack Quirks in the News

'Darth Vader' assaults Jedi church founder

HOLYHEAD, Wales, March 28 (UPI) -- A Holyhead, Wales, "Star Wars" fan said he was filming a TV interview in his backyard when a man dressed as Darth Vader jumped his fence and assaulted him.

Barney Jones, 36, known in the Jedi church as Jedi Master Jonba Hehol, said a man wearing a black garbage bag and a mask resembling the one worn by villain Darth Vader in the "Star Wars" films jumped over the fence into his garden and attacked him with a metal crutch, The Telegraph reported Friday.

Jones, who founded the first-ever British Jedi Church as a tribute to the popular movie franchise, said the masked assailant also struck the camera crew and a hairdresser.

"This wasn't a joke. This was serious," he said.

Police said they are investigating the incident.

Record $40,000 paid for vintage Dinky Toy

LONDON, March 28 (UPI) -- A record $40,000 was paid for a 75-year-old British-made miniature delivery van known as a Dinky Toy, auctioneers said.

An unidentified Toronto collector put 52 Dinky Toys up for auction in Britain with the Vectis auction firm, which specializes in toys, the Canwest News Service reported.

The 1930s small green and red truck brought the highest single-item price from an unidentified French purchaser. It was inscribed with the name of a long-gone bicycle business in London, which Vectis spokeswoman Lorna Kaufman said was "the only one known in existence."

The Toronto seller also got $70,000 for a mint-condition box set of six Dinky trucks, each bearing a different British ad, Kaufman said.

Kaufman said the previous record for a Dinky Toy was $25,000 for a Bentalls delivery truck in 1994.

Production of the toys began in 1934 by the Meccano company in Liverpool, the report said.

Titanic memorabilia to be auctioned

DEVIZES, England, March 28 (UPI) -- British auctioneers said a box of memorabilia from the estate of a recently deceased survivor of the Titanic sinking is expected to fetch up to $300,000.

The items, left behind by survivor Lillian Asplund after her 2006 death, include one of only four known remaining tickets for the ill-fated 1912 voyage and a pocket watch that was retrieved from the possession of her drowned father.

The ticket and watch are to be auctioned together April 19 at Henry Aldridge and Sons in Devizes, England, The Daily Telegraph reported Friday.

The memorabilia left behind by Asplund, the last survivor with memories of the ship's sinking after a collision with an iceberg, also contains family documents and photos. Her father's pocket watch stopped at the exact moment of the Titanic's sinking.

"The importance of this archive for any Titanic collector cannot be underestimated," said auctioneer Andrew Aldridge. "(Miss Asplund) was a very private person and hardly ever spoke about the disaster."

Canadian doughnuts a hit in Afghanistan

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, March 28 (UPI) -- Coffee and doughnuts from a national chain in Canada are gaining converts among NATO troops in Afghanistan, company officials said.

Tim Horton's, founded by and named for a former Toronto Maple Leafs hockey player in the 1960s, has 2,750 stores across Canada, and some 350 locations in the United States. Soon after Canadian troops joined the NATO mission to fight the Taliban and al-Qaida in Afghanistan, the company learned they missed their "Horton's," so the most remote store was opened at the Kandahar military base.

One of the Canadian workers who serve six-months stints at the shop, Amy Barbarie, told the Canwest News Service British, U.S. and the renowned Nepalese Royal Gurkhas are all being won over.

"The Gurkhas are real fighting machines, so I don't know if they want people to know they like frou-frou drinks that aren't so manly, but they really love their French vanilla cappuccinos and their honey-dipped doughnuts," she said.

Manager James Vergie said while Canadians are known for liking coffee "double-double," referring to sugar and cream, he recalled one U.S. soldier ordering an "eight and one."

"I called that a medium sugar with a bit of coffee," he said.