UPI NewsTrack Quirks in the News

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Italian graduates at the age of 85

BOLOGNA, Italy, June 28 (UPI) -- An Italian man who graduated high school at the age of 85 said he will now work toward a college degree in homeopathic medicine.

Giacomo Petralia, a former construction worker who was born in Sicily and lives near Bologna, said he wrote about Italian youth for his final exam, ANSA reported Thursday.

"We have to invest in them, even though the public debt is what it is," Petralia said. "You can't leave youngsters without a job."

Petralia said his next step is to attend a university and focus on homeopathic medicine.

Russian activist seeks permission to party

MOSCOW, June 28 (UPI) -- A Russian human rights activist said she will file a request with Moscow police for permission to hold a party for her 85th birthday.

Lyudmila Alexeyeva, head of the Moscow Helsinki Group, said she plans to contact police in advance of her July 20 birthday party at a city cafe to prevent running afoul of a controversial new law that increased fines for violating protest laws from about $150 to about $10,000 for participants and $18,000 for organizers, RIA Novosti said Thursday.

"There will be more than 200 guests," Alexeyeva wrote in her blog. "People are sure to walk in groups. In such cases police escort is needed.

"As a law abiding citizen I intend to ask for such escort. Let them accompany my guests from the subway station," she wrote.

Alexeyeva was one of 16 members of the Kremlin's human rights council to quit following the controversial December parliamentary elections.

Google shows off glasses with skydiving

SAN FRANCISCO, June 28 (UPI) -- Google interrupted its I/O developer conference in San Francisco so four skydivers with wingsuits and parachutes could show off the "Project Glass" eyewear.

The "augmented reality" eyewear, which was announced last winter, took center stage when Google co-founder Sergey Brin interrupted Vice President Vic Gundotra's Google+ social network demonstration Wednesday at the Moscone West conference center to announce an event was taking place that "could go wrong in about 500 different ways," Discovery News reported Thursday.

Brin said the stunt was designed to show off the capabilities of the "Project Glass" eyewear, which can capture and stream photos and videos.

The Google+ video cut to live footage of a zeppelin in the sky and quickly moved on to footage straight from the glasses of the skydivers as they made their way from the aircraft to the roof of the convention center.

A company representative said the stunt was planned about six weeks ago and required the cooperation of the Federal Aviation Administration, the mayor's office, police, the Fire Department and NASA's Ames Research Center in Mountain View, Calif.

Police travel by bus to bust scammers

LONDON, June 28 (UPI) -- London police said officers bypassed lookouts to arrest a dozen suspected Romanian illegal gamblers by traveling in a red double-decker bus.

Police said they borrowed the No. 2 Arriva London bus for the day and filled it with about 30 plainclothes and uniformed officers to sneak past the lookouts employed by the suspected con artists on the Westminster Bridge, the London Evening Standard reported Thursday.

More than 25 people were detained during the 5:30 p.m. Wednesday raid, and 12 of those were charged with gaming offenses, police said.

"This has been a hugely successful operation which has sent a strong message to these gangs that they will not be tolerated in London. We will be back here on the street every day to deter them," said Sgt. Darin Birmingham, who planned the operation.