News You Can Lose: Motorists left in pole position in Quebec

Drivers in Quebec, Canada were kept alert on the roads recently by a unique method - a utility pole.

The pole was left in the middle of the two lanes in a portion of the road in the Eastern Townships area.

Road planners had been rerouting the road around a dangerous curve but the pole had not been taken down so roadwork crews paved around it.

It survived for two months, with traffic having to swerve to avoid it, before being taken down this week.

A Transport Quebec spokesperson said an internal investigation was underway over the incident.

Star's grenade grilling

An airport in Oklahoma City, USA, was put on lockdown when a rock singer tried to pass through security with a grenade.

It was detected by an X-ray machine as Wayne Coyne, the frontman of the rock band Flaming Lips, was heading for a flight.

Police and bomb personnel were called in but the singer said the grenade, which he insisted was not live, was given to him at a house party.

When it was determined the grenade was indeed a dud, Coyne was sent on his way. "I had not quite thought about it," he was quoted as saying.

Group's drone moan

An animal rights group is up in arms after a drone its members were using to spy on pigeon hunters was shot out of the sky.

Showing Animals Respect and Kindness (Shark) says that its remote-controlled camera craft was destroyed while flying over the Wing Pointe Gun Club in Pennsylvania, USA. It claims it was brought down by one of the hunters.

"What we were doing is completely legal," Shark said in a statement. "Someone at Wing Pointe is obviously so scared of our evidence that they are desperate to stop it."

Police are investigating the destruction of the drone, which has been valued at US$4,000 (Dh14,692)

A little old for class?

A letter of acceptance for a nursery school has been sent to a 105-year-old woman.

Anna Eriksson of Sweden received the letter after the school sent out letters to households in the area with people being born in "07". Eriksson was born in 1907.

The error was brought to the attention of the school's principal, who invited the centenarian to drop by the school to attend a forthcoming open house.

Dog on the run

A British bank has been hounding a customer who withdrew more money than he had in his account. The customer is called Noodles, and he a dog.

Grant McDonald, a spokesman for NatWest bank in Leicestershire, England, said the bank has a few cases of accounts being in pets' names "to pay for things such as vets or kennel fees", he told the Metro newspaper.

Noodles and his owner, who left an overdraft of almost £7 (Dh41), have moved out of their residence listed on the account, and the bank has mistakenly sought its money from the new residents, who happen to own a Labradoodle.