Bizarre Headlines: From Cheese Heists to Ant Amputations

An unusual compilation of odd news includes a German cop losing his job over stolen cheese, a UFC champion’s magical rituals, British PM Sunak's early-morning campaign, ants performing limb amputations, strange UK election candidates, Japan ditching floppy disks, a frozen wolf autopsy in Russia, and footballers’ quirky superstitions.

Following is a summary of current odd news briefs.

Cheddar heist costs German police officer his badge

A German police officer who was fired for stealing cheddar cheese from an overturned truck while attending a traffic accident has lost his appeal against dismissal, a court ruled. In his defence, he denied nibbling on any of the cheddar.

Mixed Martial Arts-Prochazka wants champion Pereira to shun magic rituals before UFC 303

Light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira's meteoric rise in the UFC fuelled by a string of knockouts has a magical aura to it, and his next opponent Jiri Prochazka believes the magic may be present in a literal way. Prochazka, who was knocked out by Pereira in their first fight in November, said the Brazilian former kickboxing world champion used shamanic rituals before every fight to help him win.

British PM Sunak hunts for votes among the robots at dawn

Badly lagging in the race to win Britain's election, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak went hunting for votes among robots and staff in a retail distribution centre on Tuesday, kicking off his first campaign stop of the day before 5 a.m. (0400 GMT).

Sunak, who has often looked exhausted as he crossed the country during a six-week campaign, started the penultimate day of campaigning before Thursday's vote in a vast Ocado warehouse in Luton, north of London, watching robots pick items for delivery.

Ants perform limb amputations on injured comrades to save their lives

Limb amputations are performed by surgeons when a traumatic injury such as a wound from war or a vehicle accident causes major tissue destruction or in instances of serious infection or disease. But humans are not alone in doing such procedures. New research shows that some ants perform limb amputations on injured comrades to improve their survival chances. The behavior was documented in Florida carpenter ants - scientific name Camponotus floridanus - a reddish-brown species more than half an inch (1.5 cm) long inhabiting parts of the southeastern United States.

Count Binface, Elmo and AI Steve: the UK election's unusual candidates

When either Rishi Sunak or Keir Starmer take to the stage to hail victory in the British election on Friday, they will be joined at their moment of triumph by either a man with a trash can on his head or someone dressed as "Elmo" from the Muppets. Among the more than 4,500 candidates standing for election to parliament's 650 seats are those from fringe parties, single issue campaigners, and, in a peculiarly British tradition, those who are simply making fun of the whole thing.

Japan declares victory in effort to end government use of floppy disks

Japan's government has finally eliminated the use of floppy disks in all its systems, two decades since their heyday, reaching a long-awaited milestone in a campaign to modernise the bureaucracy. By the middle of last month, the Digital Agency had scrapped all 1,034 regulations governing their use, except for one environmental stricture related to vehicle recycling.

Russian scientists conduct autopsy on 44,000-year-old permafrost wolf carcass

In Russia's far northeastern Yakutia region, local scientists are performing an autopsy on a wolf frozen in permafrost for around 44,000 years, a find they said was the first of its kind. Found by chance by locals in Yakutia's Abyyskiy district in 2021, the wolf's body is only now being properly examined by scientists.

Soccer-The quirky superstitions that footballers (and others) rely on

Right boot, left boot; left laces, right laces; right foot first on the pitch. For Slovakia's Lukas Haraslin - like countless other sportspeople - the order of this pre-match routine will be sacrosanct ahead of his side's last-16 Euro 2024 clash with England on Sunday. The winger will also have the same breakfast and lunch, and he'll dress for the game in under two minutes - two more items on his list of superstitions that, if carefully observed, he hopes will bring him luck in the game.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)