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Tenn. city elects dead man mayor

TRACY CITY, Tenn., April 16 (UPI) -- Election officials in a Tennessee county said a town elected a deceased candidate mayor in a landslide -- 268 votes to the incumbent's 85.

Donna Basham, administrator of the Grundy County Election Commission, said Tracy City voters elected Carl Robin Geary, who died suddenly a few weeks ago, over Mayor Barbara Brock, who took office about a year ago after the death of the last mayor, WTVC-TV, Chattanooga, Tenn., reported Thursday.

Basham said Geary's death was widely reported in the town. She would not speculate as to the reasons for his posthumous victory.

The administrator said the city council will appoint a mayor to serve a four-year term.

Welsh club drops Tom Jones ban

FOCHRIW, Wales, April 16 (UPI) -- A Welsh social club said it is lifting a ban against singer Tom Jones, who was accused of stealing a chicken from the establishment 47 years ago.

Residents of Fochriw said the 63-year-old singer, who was known as Tommy Scott during his last local appearance in 1963, is welcome to return to the Fochriw Social Club despite his past alleged indiscretion, The Daily Record, Glasgow, Scotland, reported Thursday.

Jones and his band, The Senators, were banned from the club by the village committee after they were accused of stealing a chicken meant as a raffle prize.

Len Davies, 80, who was present during the 1963 incident, said the real events of the evening were difficult to discern.

"People were having a few drinks and after the performance a melee broke out," Davies said. "My brother had bought this chicken as one of the prizes but after the fight it had gone. The rumor is that it was Tom Jones -- but nobody really knows who took it."

Bird returns to Va. after 14,170 miles

MACHIPONGO, Va., April 16 (UPI) -- A Virginia scientist said a long-billed wading bird outfitted with a satellite transmitter returned to the state at the end of a 14,170-mile round trip.

Barry Truitt, senior scientist for The Nature Conservancy, said the whimbrel, named Hope, arrived on the Eastern Shore near Machipongo after traveling 14,170 miles around the globe during the past 11 months, The (Norfolk) Virginian-Pilot reported Thursday.

Truitt said Hope nested in western Canada and wintered in the Virgin Islands before returning to the same place where scientists first encountered her nearly a year ago.

"This bird actually came back to the exact mudflat where we caught it last year," Truitt said. "How do these birds do that? We don't know yet."

The transmitter project was carried out in conjunction with the Center for Conservation Biology of the College of William and Mary/Virginia.

Police raid nets drugs, moose meat

HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, April 16 (UPI) -- Canadian police said they found a hodge-podge of illegal items -- including hundreds of pounds of moose meat -- in a drug raid on a Halifax, Nova Scotia, home.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police and city officers, acting on a tip Wednesday, raided the house and found 159 marijuana plants, 36 ounces of bagged marijuana, digital scales and cash.

They also found 41 cartons of contraband cigarettes and the big surprise -- mounds and mounds of moose meat, The (Halifax) Chronicle-Herald reported.

"Of course, you come across all different types of stuff, but this is the first one we've come across where illegal moose meat was seized," RCMP Cpl. Joe Taplin said.

The unidentified 52-year-old man in the house faces not only criminal drug charges, but also charges for the cigarettes by Canada Customs and Revenue along with charges by the Department of Natural Resources over the moose meat, the newspaper said.