xxxNews Of The Weirdxxx
Bizarre but true stories about real people collected by syndicated columnist Chuck Shepherd.
Two Middle-Eastern Women’s Need for Speed:
–A 27-year-old Saudi woman, Hanadi Zakaria al-Hindi (whose countrywomen are not permitted to drive cars), was granted a commercial pilot’s license in June after flight training in Jordan and returned home to fly for Saudi Prince al-Walid bin Talal’s company.
–Ms. Laleh Seddigh, 28, won Iran’s national championship car race in March after becoming the first woman allowed to compete against men in any sport since Iran’s Islamic Revolution. (In the winner’s circle, Ms. Seddigh put on a scarf and draped a cape over her tight-fitting uniform.)
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s lab in Vista, Calif., reported in April that it had received for testing 17, 600-gram bricks of what it determined to be cocaine, but that on closer inspection, only the outsides of the bricks were of cocaine. Inside each brick was 500 grams of heroin. Officials guessed that the ruse was to fool transporters, who typically charge more to ship heroin than cocaine.
A 21-year-old student at University of Tennessee-Chattanooga died after pulling her car into a garage and closing the door behind her but leaving the engine running while continuing a long cell phone call (February).
(Send your Weird News to Chuck Shepherd, P.O. Box 18737, Tampa FL 33679 or [email protected] or go to www.NewsoftheWeird.com.) NEWS OF THE WEIRD
