All posts tagged "Offbeat"

Los Angeles (AFP) - A curious cat that sneaked into an open box was shipped across the United States to an Amazon warehouse after its unknowing owners sealed it inside. Carrie Clark's pet, Galena, vanished from her Utah home on April 10, sparking a furious search that involved plastering "missing" posters around the neighborhood. But a week later, a vet hundreds of miles (kilometers) away in Los Angeles got in touch to say the cat had been discovered in a box -- alongside several pairs of boots -- by a warehouse worker at an Amazon center. "I ran to tell my husband that Galena was found and we......

Washington (AFP) - The world's most famous Kansas City Chiefs fan will make it to see beau Travis Kelce play in the Super Bowl, even though she is performing in Tokyo the night before, Japan's US embassy said Friday. Angsty fans have been speculating for days over how pop music icon Taylor Swift could do it all next weekend: perform a concert as part of her record-smashing Eras Tour in Tokyo, and hours later support star tight end Kelce as the Chiefs take on the San Francisco 49ers in Las Vegas.  But the Japanese embassy in Washington moved decisively to reassure the public, while revealing it......

Hollywood (United States) (AFP) - The landmark word has loomed over Tinseltown since before movies started talking, becoming a symbol of the entire film industry. For the first time in decades, the Hollywood sign -- at least a little bit of it -- was illuminated on Friday to celebrate its 100th birthday. The nine-letter sign is officially a centenarian but, as with many an aging grande dame in Hollywood, looks as fresh as ever. Like the actors and actresses it looks down on, the sign has been in its fair share of films. Directors who want to let their audience know a movie is set in Los Angele......

Washington (AFP) - The US military scrambled Monday to locate a stealth jet that went missing after the pilot ejected -- with the failure to track the aircraft drawing amazement and ridicule in equal measure. When the F-35 disappeared over South Carolina on Sunday, Joint Base Charleston (JBC) issued a plaintive call on social media asking for anyone who had information to call in. Flight tracking sites showed several search aircraft focused on a wooded and farmland area near Stuckey, South Carolina, about 75 miles (120 kilometers) north of Charleston, on late Monday afternoon. But there was no......

Rehoboth Beach (United States) (AFP) - Vladimir Putin hoped to project strength by posing shirtless on a horse. Donald Trump, imagining himself even stronger, pasted his face onto images of Sylvester Stallone's rippling torso. But when Joe Biden ditched his shirt Sunday, he apparently just wanted to catch a few rays. A picture taken of the 80-year-old US president sunning himself shirtless on the beach near his Rehoboth, Delaware, home went viral on social media Monday. Posted by a journalist who happened to be vacationing in Rehoboth, the picture showed Biden in long blue swimming trunks, blu......

West Hartford (United States) (AFP) - Joe Biden on Friday left Americans scratching their heads with an off-the-cuff remark that was, well, royally unusual for a US president: "God save the queen, man!" What he meant, which queen he was referring to, and why he threw in what sounded like the traditional patriotic British cry, no one could immediately tell.  Queen Elizabeth II, whom Biden met, died in September 2022 and was replaced by a king -- her son Charles. Biden had just completed an impassioned speech at the National Safer Communities Summit in Connecticut on getting Congress to toughen ......