Armed cops battle cherry thieves

Police are using night-vision goggles to snatch cherry thieves. The brazen crooks cause nightmares for farmers by raiding their orchards at night, picking most of the fruit and then selling them at markets.

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But authorities have launched a "cherry war" — which includes watching farms at night — in a bid to protect the valuable crops.

One farmer, Sylvia Hristova, said her family relies almost entirely on cherry production to make a living, adding the iniative across Bulgaria had made their income safe this year. She added: "The cherries are our bread and butter after all."

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Sweden celebrates dancing around a vagina.

While most Swedes look forward to dancing around a traditional maypole this Midsummer, one group of gender-conscious revelers is pushing Swedes to celebrate the holiday by gathering around a vagina instead, contributor Lina Sennevall discovers.

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With the cherished Midsummer holiday just around the corner, Swedes across the country are busy planning how they'll spend this most traditional of holidays.

Among the most important parts of a traditional Midsummer celebration is the decoration and erection of a flower-adorned maypole, around which joyous Swedes, young and old, dance and sing merry tunes like "Små grodorna" ('Little frogs') in a rapturous celebration of the summer's warmth and sunshine.

But this year, a growing chorus of voices rising up against Sweden's traditional Midsummer celebrations, implore Swedes to break with tradition and dance around a vagina instead.

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Shark jumping over surfer becomes big hit

One surfer was merrily minding his own business riding some waves at Florida’s New Smyrna Beach when he got the shock of his life as a 1.2 meter or 3.5 feet long shark leapt over his head.

The scene was reminiscent of something from Jaws, but thankfully the shark didn’t make a meal of the innocent surfer.

While thousands flocked to YouTube to marvel at the sight, some were dubious that the shark was actually a shark – and thought it was a seal instead.

One user summed up the thoughts of many when they wrote: ‘Flying sharks... That's it we're f****d!’

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The sea creature in the video is a spinner shark, and such behavior is perfectly normal and completely harmless – to humans anyway.

The Florida Museum of Natural History explained: ‘They swim swiftly up in a vertical position to swallow their prey while they spin. Often their momentum causes them to exit the water.’

Spinner sharks, highly valued by fisheries, are on the threatened species list.

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Small Bits of News You Didn’t Know You Needed

Collector has 350,000 pieces of erotica

A New York physician with a doctorate in sexuality said his pornography collection has 350,000 items dating as far back as the 13th century.

Clifford Scheiner, 61, a former emergency room doctor who now operates a mail-order erotic book business, said his collection of pornographic books, films and photos includes 13th century manuscripts in addition to every issue of Playboy magazine ever published.

"It is certainly one of the largest collections of erotology and sexology in the world," Scheiner said I probably spent about $1 million on the collection.

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Man facing toilet paper theft charge

Clearly, no city worker was using that much toilet paper.

Police said that a Massachusetts man admitted this week to stealing cases of toilet paper from Lawrence City Hall.

David Pinkham was arrested after a Lawrence police officer spotted him walking out with a case with a case of toilet paper. Police said security video showed the 53-year-old Lawrence resident entering City Hall empty handed then leaving with the case.

Police said Pinkham admitted stealing toilet paper from City Hall "five or six times" and other supplies.

According to a police report; Pinkham "pulled six tightly folded toilet paper rolls from his buttocks and groin area" at the police station.

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Burglar takes frozen turkey, electronics from home

Authorities in Norwich, Vt., say a person or people forced an outside door open and rummaged through the entire house, including the refrigerator, freezer and kitchen cupboards.

A desk-top computer, digital camera, IPod speakers, several containers of loose change as well frozen meat, vegetables and fruit were stolen, sometime between 8:30 a.m. and 4 p.m.

Police say they collected a small amount of physical evidence from the scene but had no suspects.

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