Weird News

Weird News

Child rips up parents' money

A two-year-old boy left his parents devastated when he shredded an envelope containing $1,060.

Couple Ben and Jackee Belnap had saved up the money to buy season tickets for the University of Utah football team, but soon discovered their little boy had slipped the cash into their paper shredder.

Jackee told KTVX-TV: "As devastated and as sick as we were, this was one of those moments where you just have to laugh."

The pair are hoping to be able to retrieve the money with the help of the US Department of Treasury.

NYC getting a squirrel census

Counters started roaming the 840-acre Central Park in New York City on Saturday for its first ever Squirrel Census.

Organisers of the two-week count tell The New York Times they're looking to learn more about squirrel behaviour and urban green space.

Jamie Allen led similar censuses of Atlanta's Inman Park in 2012 and 2016. He says the projects are filling a data void on squirrels and exposing patterns in how they live.

The Atlanta results helped inform a paper on the spread of the West Nile virus.

The Central Park counters are tracking squirrels' activities, such as running and foraging, coat colour and sounds they make.

Their findings will be made public in the spring.

Rwandans enjoy eating beetroot but entrepreneur Assumpta Uwamariya has found a novel use for the vegetable turning it into a red wine that has proven popular with customers in several African countries and even as far away as Germany.

Unable to find a job after graduating from university, Uwamariya started growing beetroot for a living and then learnt how to turn it into a rich, earthy red wine known as "Karisimbi".

The 27-year-old now grows beetroot on a three-hectare farm in the Rubavu district of western Rwanda, employing 17 people. She also buys the vegetable from local farmers.

The beetroot is gathered, washed, cut into small pieces, boiled and left to ferment. She produces around 620 litres a week but hopes to more than double that by next year. She currently sells about 1,000 bottles every month.

Most of her customers are in Rwanda, including the capital Kigali, as well as in Mozambique and Democratic Republic of Congo, she said.