Latest Agency Stories

Police asked callers to pull the udder one - when they rang in to report a cow waiting for a train in Steinfurt, Germany. The life-sized replica had been stolen from a garden by pranksters the night before and was found abandoned on the platform at the local station. Owner Bernie Schmidt said: "It's always being stolen. People have a few drinks and think it would be a very funny thing to do." "We have her in the garden because it's a bit classier than a gnome," he added.
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It's the kind of sport where even the smallest slip up could be fatal - as climbers try to haul themselves up a sheer 100ft wall of ice with axes. At one point competitors in the contest - in the middle of Bad Gastein, Austria - had to dangle from a steep man-made overhang as they struggled to pull themselves to the summit in front of more than 1,000 spectators. Winner Georg Santner - who got to the top first despite dropping his ice pick - said: ""It was very close and I was very...
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At first glance, it looks as if ET might have decided to make himself at home instead of calling it. But this space age dome in the middle of an empty mountain plateau in Zarnesti, Romania has become a dome from home for dad-of-two Robert Kamner and his family. At 80,000 GBP, the giant kit was half the price to buy and put up as a conventional house and costs less to heat than any normal semi. "It's solid and safe, fire-resistant, and can survive earthquakes and tornadoes," explained...
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Teenage climber Crina Popescu has summit to celebrate after becoming the first ever woman to climb the highest peak in the Antarctic. Crina - 16, from Rasnov, Brasov county, Romania - tackled 14,000 ft high Mount Sidley as part of a the Seven Volcanoes challenge to climb the highest volcanic peaks on all the planet's continents. Now the schoolgirl - who climbs with her proud dad Ovidiu - is preparing for another record attempt next month when she aims to reach both the North and the South...
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Horrified shopping centre customers watched as a touch screen store guide began broadcasting hard core porn outside a children's toy shop. The giant screen - supposed to help shoppers find their way around the complex in Bratislava, Slovakia - suddenly switched to a no-holds-barred website featuring threesomes, lesbians and kinky S&M sex. Eurovea shopping centre officials believe computer hackers targeted their system to link it to the online porn site. "We don’t know how this...
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A dozy dairy cow had to be rescued by fire fighters when she fell through the ice on a frozen pond in Sekowa, Poland, and couldn't moo-ve. Farmer Maciej Mankowski, 54, dialled 999 when he saw the prized milker thrashing about in the minus 10 degrees Celsius water. Fire fighters cut through the ice with a chainsaw before hauling out the heifer with an electric winch. "I knew that if she stayed in there too long she would freeze to death. It was a miracle the fire brigade were able to...
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A trucker trafficking exotic animals hundreds of miles across Europe was arrested by police when they found an illegal mobile menagerie in the back of his lorry. The cruel cargo - including serval and caracal wild cats, parrots, dwarf mongooses, porcupines, and chipmunks - has been taken into care in wildlife refuge centres and zoos near Gorlitz, Germany, where the truck was stopped during a routine search. Police say the 52-year-old driver claimed he'd bought the beats from a pet shop in...
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Social workers who snatched a 12-month-old boy from his mum because his grandmother had been fined for speeding have been ordered to hand back the tot by judges. Baby Jonas, from Lambach, Austria, had been living with his 18-year-old mum Ann-Katrin Leitner and her partner Andreas when he was seized by the local social services department more than two months ago. They claimed the child was at risk, because if his 50-year-old grandmother Heidi was unable able to pay a 1,200 GBP speeding...
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A horrified trucker was left stuck on a railway line after level crossing barriers came down on him when he was trapped on the tracks. The trucker had been forced to halt while he was half way over the track in Langenthal, Switzerland, when a lorry in front of him skidded on ice and thick snow. "Suddenly the barrier came down, the lights started flashing and he could see a train coming down the line straight towards him. It must have been terrifying," said one witness. Luckily the...
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A 47-year-old trucker survived with barely a scratch when he dumped more than 12,000 bottles of beer on the road after losing control of his lorry on a hairpin bend. The truck - loaded with Becks beer - came a cropper as the driver was coming off a motorway near Delmenhorst, Germany. "The load slipped and pulled the truck with it. It's very likely that it had not been loaded properly," said one police officer investigating the crash. The road was blocked for more than five hours while...
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