Jockstrip: The world as we know it.

• Tweet

Elvis crypt taken off auction block

MEMPHIS, June 24 (UPI) -- Plans to sell the Memphis crypt where Elvis Presley was once buried have been scuttled after complaining fans said it should be made into a shrine.

The (Memphis) Commercial Appeal reported Julien's Auctions in Los Angeles agreed Friday to take the crypt off the auction block.

Forest Hill Funeral Home and Cemetery officials said it was their decision to stop the auction.

Julien's Auctions last month announced it planned to sell the empty tomb that once held the remains of the rock 'n' roll great at an upcoming "Sports Legends and Music Icons" auction.

The crypt has been empty since 1977, when the remains of Presley and his mother Gladys were moved to his Graceland estate, the newspaper said Saturday

The auction company said it expected the crypt to sell for $500,000.

Woman upset over corpse on flight

STOCKHOLM, Sweden, June 24 (UPI) -- A Swedish woman says she had to fly overnight from Europe to Tanzania next to a man who died after the plane had departed.

Lena Pettersson, a reporter for Sveriges Radio, said the man was having convulsions before the Kenya Airways flight departed from Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The plane took off anyway, The Local.se reported Sunday.

He died several hours later while the plane was in the air.

Pettersson said she then had to sit across from the dead man for the rest of the flight. "Of course it was unpleasant, but I am not a person who makes a fuss," Pettersson told the Expressen newspaper.

She later decided, however, to seek compensation. It took a couple of months of e-mails but she was finally refunded $713 -- about half of the cost of her ticket, Sveriges Radio said.

Tortoise returned home after week away

ST. CHARLES, Mo., June 24 (UPI) -- A tortoise who went missing from his suburban Chicago home last week was found hanging out in a empty pool in St. Charles, Ill.

The Chicago Tribune said the 44-year-old tortoise, who is named Lance, wandered Sunday from has home in Lombard during a barbecue and was picked-up by a man who thought it was a wild animal and took it home to nearby St. Charles.

Lance spent five days in an empty pool, cared for by the man's 10-year-old daughter. A neighbor of the girl contacted Lance's owners, Andy and Susan Lechner, after media reports about the missing tortoise, the newspaper said Sunday.

"We have had a very happy ending to our adventure with the missing tortoise and are eternally grateful for the news coverage that made it possible," Andy Lechner was quoted as saying by the Tribune.

Scottish marchers told no swords allowed

STIRLING, Scotland, June 23 (UPI) -- Participants in a march to commemorate the Battle of Bannockburn, the great Scottish victory of 1314, have been told to leave swords and axes at home.

The Stirling Council, which has jurisdiction in the nearby village of Bannockburn, said weapons were banned during the short march to the battle site, The Daily Telegraph reported.

But the National Trust for Scotland, which owns the battlefield, said weapons would be allowed on the field. Participants would have to leave them in their cars while marching through the village and then retrieve them.

The Scottish Republican Socialist Movement, which organized this year's march, expected several hundred participants. Many were expected to be costumed as soldiers in Robert the Bruce's army.

The Bruce defeated King Edward II of England on June 24, 1314, one of many battles fought to preserve Scotland's independence.

The Stirling Council said the weapons ban was standard operating procedure. But some organizers said officials might have been worried by events last year, when one car was hit with a shield and a British flag was burned.

"These weapons are part of our traditional dress and people were not going to be waving them about," said Tom Chalmers on a Facebook page against the weapons ban. "It's a peaceful march with banners."