“You’d think the fact that this camel appears to be eating a female vet would be weird enough for this picture. But apparently, according to the agency who supplied this image, it shows the animal ‘getting ready for a pedicure’ in the United Arab Emirates. Now – we all know camels, the ‘Ships of the Desert’ – are an important part of people’s lifestyles in the Middle East. But a pedicure?! Really? Don’t even ask why the vet needs to climb into the camel’s mouth to give it a pedicure – last time we checked, pedicures were for humans only. This weird picture actually comes from a photo competition to mark the World Veterinary Year, used to highlight the important role vets play in the lives of people and animals across the world. It’s actually an optical illusion – the vet’s head is merely hidden behind the camel’s cranium. The vet being eaten by a camel came top of the 2,500 global entries, and we can see why.” w/ photo

“An man accused of being a drug trafficker was detained by police after they confirmed his identity through a rare birth defect: six fingers on each hand. Police in Brazil’s southern state of Santa Catarina said his hands were the key to capturing the wanted man. “We had indications that it was him, but because he presented his brother’s papers as identification we had no proof,” said police commissioner Enio de Oliveira Matos. “Given this peculiarity, we requested information from the Institute of Identification in the state of Parana, where he was born, and with this feature, it was possible to confirm his identity.” w/ photo

“A boxy vehicle that evokes images of suburbia will define the iconic yellow cabs of this metropolis over the next decade and beyond, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said he announced that a Nissan minivan will become the city’s taxi of choice. The model, selected from among three finalists in a city competition, is designed so that it could eventually be updated with an electric engine. The city is exploring the possibility of ultimately replacing the city’s entire fleet of more than 13,000 taxis with vehicles powered by electricity. Bloomberg conceded at a City Hall news conference that the minivan – which offers extra passenger leg room and enough trunk space for the luggage of four people – is evocative of suburbia, but he said the distinctive yellow paint job on the vehicles will still make them New York icons. With features including a panoramic overhead window that will give tourists a view of the city’s skyscrapers and onboard outlets and charging stations that will allow the city’s professionals to treat the cabs as mobile offices, city Taxi and Limousine Commissioner David Yassky said he believed the vehicles could become as beloved as the Checker cabs of yesteryear.” w/ photo

“Cuba’s Jose Castelar finished rolling one large cigar — at 268.4 ft, his fifth Guinness world record. “Cuba is the country where the best tobacco is grown, and as long as Cueto is around, Cuba will have the world’s longest cigar,” Castelar told reporters, referring to himself by his nickname. Castelar, 67, had been working on the superstogie since April 25, toiling away about eight hours a day. His new goal — another record he could set by topping 328 feet.” w/ photo

“A giant crowd watched as two-time goat race winner Dax fell and Peggy, the three-legged goat favoite from last year, won the Sly Fox goat race. At the annual goat race held by Sly Fox Brewery in Kimbeton, the reigning winner lost, and the fan favorite, the three-legged Peggy, ruled the day. “Goats do very well with three legs,” said Colin Presby, who ran Peggy in the final. “I knew she had it in her.” Presby said he ran with Peggy around his home. “I only have two legs,” Presby said. “She has three. She always beat me.” w/ photos

“An oddball art lover is to marry one of his paintings after falling for the girl in the portrait. Obsessed Tomasz Urynowicz, 37, from Nowa Huta, Poland, has spent 10 years trying to track down the brown-haired girl in the picture painted 56 years ago. “It shows a young girl hanging laundry. She has brown hair that shimmers in the sun – absolute beauty. For the last decade, I have been trying to find this girl. I thought that one of my neighbors may know her or the artist.” He explained: “I just wanted to meet her, sit down and have coffee and a chat – to see who she is and what her life has been like.” w/ photo

“Jim Schloegel stood under the shade of a giant bird cage and raised both arms in confusion. Three plywood parrots hung above him, waving slightly against their tethers. Schloegel, 48, grabbed a section of chain where a fourth should have been. Last week, someone purloined one of his brightly painted works of art. “I’m more puzzled as to why you would take it,” Schloegel said. “Why?” Schloegel woke up and noticed the bird missing. When he went to check the cage, he found  its chains had been severed with a bolt cutter. Schloegel’s handcrafted bird cage and the parrots were borne about six years ago from a creative effort to recycle old farm equipment and related gear that he couldn’t toss out or sell. He and his brother, who together built and painted the birds, don’t remember why they chose parrots. “We just said we got to do something unique,” he said. “And we went with it.” They spent six months on the project, assembling a bird cage out of a corn crib and painting plywood cutouts shaped like parrots. Eventually, the exotic birds took on a life of their own, becoming  more than just a pet project. Neighbors used the display as a landmark for directions. Passing gawkers stopped to snap a photo.” w/ photo

“The very hoppy bunny, Snoopy from Jena, Germany, earns his carrots by trying to jump as high as he can around specially designed rabbit race courses. The sport sees little Snoopy leaping over a number of dressage style fences arranged at different heights as well as taking part in long-jump and high-jump challenges. Snoopy’s owner Claudia Fehlen says that the black and white rabbit can reach up to 2 feet. 23-year-old Miss Fehlen is very proud of Snoopy saying: ‘He has done well in tournaments. He came in second once, and third another time.’ Miss Fehlen found out about the sport five years ago on the internet and has been training her rabbits since 2009.” w/ photo

“When Karen Butler came out of sedation after oral surgery a year and a half ago, her mouth throbbed and her face was puffy. But that’s not all that had changed. When she spoke, the words tumbled out in a thick and foreign accent. “I sounded like I was from Transylvania,” she said. Over the next few days, the swelling subsided and the pain vanished, but Butler’s newly acquired accent did not. Though it has softened over time, she’s never again spoken like a native Oregonian from Madras. To most people, she sounds British. It took months to find an explanation: foreign accent syndrome, a disorder so rare that only about 60 cases have been documented worldwide since the early 1900s. She’s the first known case in Oregon, said Dr. Ted Lowenkopf, medical director of the statewide Providence Stroke Center. The condition changed Butler’s life, forcing her to answer endless questions about her accent. Most people are incredulous at first. A few insist she’s faking it. Foreign accent syndrome is usually caused by a stroke, though it also has been associated with multiple sclerosis, head injuries and migraines.” w/ photo

“Canada geese looking for a free lunch on the putting greens of an Elk’s Lodge golf course in Salisbury have a new obstacle in their path. Strategically placed on the nine-hole course are silhouettes of dogs, designed to pivot with the wind, making them seem more real to the birds. The course has three of the wooden decoys at this time and places them on greens near the water. “They have worked. I was not a believer until I saw it with my own eyes,” said David Reichenberg, the course manager. The golf course, next to the Salisbury Zoological Park, has ponds and grasses that make it attractive to geese grazing. The birds’ droppings disrupt putting, and the birds eat up grasses by the root, Reichenberg said. Beyond the golf course’s try at trickery, controlling the population of nonmigrating geese is no easy task on Delmarva and across the U.S. The birds are prolific poopers, producing a pound of nitrogen-rich droppings a day. They face few natural predators and are protected from humans under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. As a result, the birds commonly live to be 15-25 years.” w/ photo