Reuters Odd News Summary

May 13, 2015 3:58 AM

Following is a summary of current odd news briefs.

Please don't drunkenly chase the bears, Massachusetts police urge

Add a new worry to the list facing police officers in western Massachusetts: People getting drunk and chasing bears. "The North Adams Police Department is urging everyone to not chase bears through the woods with a dull hatchet, drunk. Yes that really did happen tonight," police in the city of 13,500 people in a mountainous area near the Massachusetts-Vermont border requested on Facebook late on Monday.

Oklahoma man pleads guilty in deadly 'atomic wedgie' case

An Oklahoma man has pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter for asphyxiating his stepfather with the underwear he was wearing in a move police dubbed an "atomic wedgie," court officials said on Tuesday. Brad Davis, 34, who pleaded guilty on Monday, faces between four to 35 years in prison for the death of Denver St. Clair, 58, in December 2013 in McLoud, east of Oklahoma City. A mitigation hearing is set for Wednesday with sentencing scheduled for July.

Nationwide hunt on for 17 rare monkeys stolen from French zoo

Police are hunting across France for seventeen rare monkeys stolen from a zoo south of Paris over the weekend, the zoo's director said on Tuesday. The seven golden lion tamarins and 10 silver marmosets, all owned by the Brazilian government, were taken on Saturday from the Beauval zoo, about 200 km (120 miles) from Paris, by what officials said were "experts".

Lights out, aircon off for workers at Brazil's Oi as it slashes costs

A rigorous cost-cutting program at debt-burdened Oi SA has hundreds of measures - including leaving the Brazilian telecommunication's company's 17,000 staff sweltering in the dark if they work late in its offices. Chief Executive Bayard Gontijo said in an interview on Monday that the company's strict new 7 p.m. policy to switch off the air conditioning and turn off the lights is both a source of power savings and a big way of reinforcing a crackdown on the amount of overtime worked.

Bangladesh mobile phones can't ring national anthem

Bangladesh's Supreme Court on Monday banned the use of the national anthem as a ringtone for mobile telephones or for any other commercial purpose. "The national anthem can't be used as a business tool," the Supreme Court said, upholding a 2010 high court ruling.

U.S. museum returns monkey god statue to Cambodia

A U.S. museum returned a 10th century statue of the Hindu monkey god Hanuman to Cambodia on Tuesday, saying research suggested it had probably been taken from the gate of an ancient temple complex. The Cleveland Museum of Art said it was voluntarily returning the stone figure with a human body and a monkey's head and tail, which it acquired in 1982 from an art dealer in New York who had since died.

Baby kangaroo, four baby goats stolen from Wisconsin zoo

A baby kangaroo was taken from its mother's pouch and stolen along with four baby goats from a zoo in eastern Wisconsin, local police said on Monday. The animals were taken from a winter holding barn a few miles from the Special Memories Zoo in Greenville on Tuesday night or Wednesday morning, according to Terry Hammen, a lieutenant at the Outagamie County Sheriff's Department.