Odd stories around the world
CELEBRITY SLIPPERS
A pair of slippers left in a museum collection for more than 140 years have been identified as those of Napoleon Bonaparte’s sister, Princess Pauline Borghese.
The tiny silk and leather shoes were left to the University of Aberdeen as part of a collection by Robert Wilson, a doctor who graduated from the university before travelling the world.
Mr Wilson died in 1871 and possessions he collected while working as a ship’s surgeon with the East India Company were passed to the university’s museum.
STOCKING UP
Wine worth almost £50,000 was bought to replenish the Government’s cellars in 2011/12.
But under new arrangements designed to make the Government hospitality wine cellar self-funding, bottles worth £44,000 were sold off.
Receipts from other Government departments amounted to £10,519, junior Foreign Office minister Mark Simmonds told the Commons. Purchases for the Government hospitality wine cellar, which is used to supply drink for state banquets and official functions, amounted to £48,955.
BANG TO RIGHTS
Police are appealing for information after thieves made off with a stash of right-foot ladies’ shoes.
The footwear was left overnight outside a shop in Exeter. The rack consisted entirely of right-footed ladies’ shoes and children’s snow boots.
A spokesman for Devon and Cornwall Police said: “The stolen footwear will be of little use to anyone without the matching shoe.”
DRESS CODE
A Parisian law dating from 1800 that has never been repealed bans women from wearing skirts in the city.
MPs have occasionally pushed for the law to be set aside, and a senator from the opposition UMP party recently asked again for the government to do just that.
The Ministry for Women’s Rights said it remains on the books “as an element of the archives kept by the Paris police”.
CRUMB OF COMFORT
Someone dressed as the Cookie Monster has said they stole a German factory’s biscuit sculpture and now want to return it.
The gilded bronze item was part of a statue outside the Hannover head office, and it was reported stolen last month.
A local newspaper was sent a picture of someone dressed like the Sesame Street character holding what appears to be the stolen biscuit with a note written in cut-out letters.
BABY DRIVER
A six-year-old girl crashed her mother’s car while trying to drive across town to visit her father.
The mother was apparently asleep when the girl took the car keys in Pittsburgh.
A police spokesman said the girl was tall for her age, but added: “How she knew how to operate a car - your guess is as good as mine.”
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