Watercooler Stories

Hen has chick without laying egg

KOTTE, Sri Lanka, April 20 (UPI) -- A hen in Sri Lanka gave birth to a chick without an egg, veterinary officials said.

Instead of being laid by the hen and incubated in the nest, the egg was incubated inside the hen for 21 days and then the chick hatched inside the mother.

The chick is normally formed and healthy, veterinarians say, although the mother hen died.

The government veterinary officer in the area, P.R. Yapa, said he had never seen anything like it before, the BBC reported.

An examination of the hen's carcass showed the fertilized egg had developed within the hen's reproductive system but stayed inside the hen's body until it hatched, Yapa said.

The examination showed the hen died of internal injuries.

The story has made headlines in Sri Lanka, the BBC said, with one Sri Lankan newspaper carrying the headline: "The chicken came first; not the egg."

Tangled whale vanishes overnight

SAN ONOFRE, Calif., April 20 (UPI) -- Marine rescuers in California said they were unable to locate a gray whale last seen tangled in a fishing net off the coast of San Onofre.

Melissa Sciacca, director of development at the Pacific Marine Mammal Center, said the 40-foot whale was first seen heading south along the shore of Laguna Beach Tuesday while pulling 50 to 100 feet of fishing line on its left pectoral fin with additional fishing line tangled in its mouth, KTLA-TV, Los Angeles, reported Thursday.

Rescuers were able to attach three inflatable buoys to the whale before it fought against them.

"This whale, I think, was letting us know we were a little bit too close," said Dana Friedman of the Pacific Marine Mammal Center.

The rescuers said they managed to free the whale from a portion of the fishing line but had to suspend the operation for the night. The rescue team was unable to locate the whale Wednesday, even with the help of Coast Guard helicopters.

Experts said they were concerned about the whale's southward direction, as gray whales usually migrate north at this time of year.

Deportees' mouths taped shut in Italy

ROME, April 20 (UPI) -- Rome prosecutors said they were investigating allegations the mouths of two Tunisian men were sealed with duct tape as they were deported.

Prosecutors said they opened an investigation after filmmaker Francesco Sperandeo posted a photo to Facebook of the two men being deported on an Alitalia flight with their mouths taped shut and their hands cuffed with plastic bands, ANSA reported Thursday.

"The indifference of the other passengers" was the worst part, Sperandeo said.

He said the officers told him the methods they were using were "normal."

Man, 92, still working at post office

PITTSFORD, N.Y., April 20 (UPI) -- A New York state man who began working for the U.S. Postal Service when he was 70 is now 92 and the oldest postal worker in a district including eight states.

Officials said Charles Cook, of Pittsford, who works as a supervisor at the mail processing center in Henrietta, is the oldest employee in a district including Ohio, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Tennessee, Delaware, and portions of New York, West Virginia and New Jersey, the Rochester (N.Y.) Courier Democrat reported Thursday.

"I say, 'If you think I'm going to be replaced and they're going to bring in some greenhorn to do my job, you're crazy,'" Cook said. "I'm going to be here for another 25 years."

Cook said he began his career with the Postal Service after a doctor told him when he was 70 he should seek out a job with a lot of physical activity to extend his life.