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Cat stows away for 1,667-mile train ride

PLYMOUTH, England, Jan. 17 (UPI) -- A British train operator said an injured cat stowed away in a train's undercarriage for a 1,667-mile ride.

First Great Western said Polly the cat is believed to have stowed away in a sealed unit under the high speed train's front carriage after breaking her leg near her Plymouth, England, home Jan. 10. The cat was not discovered until the end of the next day, after trips to London, Swansea, Worcester, Oxford and Paddington, The Mirror reported Thursday.

Train manager Emily Mahoney-Smith found the cat after hearing the cat whine during a stop.

Veterinarian Matthew Berriman of Penzance, England, said Polly's leg had to be amputated.

"She had a very nasty leg fracture which was easily four or five days old by the time we operated," Berriman said. "So it's extremely possible she was stuck on the train for several days."

Polly had an identification microchip and has been returned to owners Arthur Westington, 84, and his wife Louisa, 82, who said she is recovering.

"We thought she'd gone for good. She has now seen more of the country than us," Louisa said.

Man charged with driving up mountain twice

CHELTENHAM, Wales, Jan. 17 (UPI) -- A Welsh man on trial for dangerous driving allegedly drove his sport utility vehicle up the country's highest mountain on two occasions.

Prosecutor Matthew Curtis said Craig Williams, 40, of Cheltenham, parked his Vauxhall Frontera near the 3,560-foot-high summit of Snowdon Sept. 3, 2011, and the vehicle was removed from the mountain Sept. 8 and returned to its owner, Wales Online reported Thursday.

Curtis said Williams' "stubbornness and sheer stupidity got the better of him" and he repeated the stunt Sept. 29, this time leaving a note on his vehicle advertising it for sale on eBay.

Williams admitted driving his SUV up the mountain Sept. 3, but argues someone else drove the vehicle Sept. 29, when it allegedly caused damage to the railway track, The Mirror reported.

Williams is charged with driving dangerously on footpaths and the mountain railway.

"Whichever way the vehicle was driven up it was dangerous. The greatest risk might have been to the defendant himself. The car could easily have slipped, overturned or gone over the edges," Curtis said.

Wax Obamas take inauguration tour

WASHINGTON, Jan. 17 (UPI) -- Madame Tussauds' Washington wax museum took figures of President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle on a bus tour Thursday to celebrate the inauguration.

The museum said the figures were loaded onto a bus from Big Bus Tours at Union Station around 9 a.m. Thursday and were taken past the Capitol Building and the Lincoln Memorial.

The figures, which were updated to reflect the president and first lady's aging since the figures were created in 2008, were greeted at Madame Tussauds' by figures of Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, John F. Kennedy and Jackie Kennedy.

The tour was planned in honor of Obama's scheduled inauguration next week for his second term in office.

Pa. prison offers 'love' tours

PHILADELPHIA, Jan. 17 (UPI) -- A former prison in Philadelphia is offering special Valentine's Day tours themed around "love stories throughout the prison's history."

Officials said Eastern State Penitentiary, which operated as a prison from 1829 until 1971, will offer romantic Winter Adventure Tours Feb. 14-17 with a focus on the love stories from the years of the prison's operation.

"During these four days, visitors can experience the history of Eastern State with an added focus on love stories throughout the prison's history," the attraction's website said.

The love stories detailed on the tour will include the stories of Elizabeth Velora Elwell and Albert Green Jackson, inmates who exchanged letters and met secretly in the prison's cellar, and inmate Sydney Ware, who married socialite Ella Hershey before she secured his pardon.

Tickets for the tours are being sold as buy one, get one free to encourage visitors to bring their significant others.