UPI NewsTrack Quirks in the News

Truckload of cheese catches fire in tunnel

TYSFJORD, Norway, Jan. 23 (UPI) — Authorities in Norway said a tunnel is closed after a truck carrying 29.8 tons of goat cheese caught fire in transit.

Police said the truck caught fire while traveling through the Brattli Tunnel in Tysfjord Jan. 17 and the cargo, caramelized brown goat cheese, kept the fire burning for five days, Norwegian broadcaster NRK reported Wednesday.

No injuries were reported from the blaze.

Officer Viggo Berg said the high concentration of fat and sugar in the cheese can cause it to burn "almost like petrol if it gets hot enough."

Geologist Viggo Aronsen said the tunnel is likely to remain closed for several weeks.

"We can’t go in until it’s safe," Aronsen said.

Kjell Bjoern Vinje of the Norwegian Public Roads Administration said he was unaware of any previous incidents involving cheese catching fire on a road, the BBC reported.

"I didn’t know that brown cheese burns so well," he said.

Police: Man hid camera for breast pumping

PORTLAND, Ore., Jan. 23 (UPI) — Authorities in Oregon said a man was arrested for allegedly hiding a camera on a co-worker’s desk to record her using a breast pump.

Portland Police Sgt. Pete Simpson said Russell Gordon, 44, allegedly concealed the pen camera on his co-worker’s desk at the MB&G consulting firm, where he has been employed as IT manager for more than 10 years, KGW-TV, Portland, reported Wednesday.

The woman discovered the camera and turned it in to supervisors.

"Investigators determined that Gordon placed the camera on the victim’s desk to capture her use of a breast pump. There’s no other suspect but this man, on video quite clearly setting this pen in the area," Simpson said.

Gordon was booked into the Multnomah County Jail on charges of second-degree burglary and invasion of privacy.

"We have all felt victimized. When the trust is gone, we’re left shocked," MB&G President Steve Fairweather said.

UFO may have been military plane

AMHERST, Mass., Jan. 23 (UPI) — Authorities said a military plane was flying over Massachusetts during reported UFO sightings, but a military spokesman said the descriptions don’t match.

Federal Aviation Administration spokesman James Peters said agency officials at Bradley International Airport reviewed radar data from Jan. 8 when residents in the Amherst and Pelhem area reported a mysterious aircraft traveling slowly and unusually low over the area from 5:45 to 6:15 p.m., the Daily Hampshire Gazette reported Wednesday.

"The only aircraft that was operating in the area was a military aircraft doing practice approaches to Westover [Air Reserve Base]," Peters wrote in an email to the Northampton newspaper.

Lt. Col. James Bishop, Westover’s chief of public affairs, said the aircraft was a C5 cargo plane. However, he said the C5, one of the world’s largest aircraft, does not match the description of the craft reported by residents. The residents said the object appeared to be triangular or diamond shaped and about the size of two or three cars. They said it appeared to travel silently at a low altitude.

"There’s just no mistaking that," Bishop said. "It’s quite a loud sound and quite a big aircraft," he said of the cargo plane.

Girl scolded in class for paper gun

PHILADELPHIA, Jan. 23 (UPI) — A Philadelphia woman said her daughter’s elementary school overreacted when the girl was searched and scolded for possessing a paper gun.

Dianna Kelly said her daughter, fifth-grader Melody Valentin, was reprimanded by a school administrator at Newlin Fell Elementary School and had her belongings searched last week when she pulled out a paper gun her grandfather had made, WTXF-TV, Philadelphia, reported Wednesday.

Valentin said she decided to throw the folded-paper object away when she discovered it in her bag, but it was spotted by a boy who summoned administrators.

"He yelled at me and said I shouldn’t have brought the gun to school and I kept telling him it was a paper gun but he wouldn’t listen," Valentin said.

WTXF-TV said it was unable to reach school officials for comment. The School District of Philadelphia said it had not yet spoken to officials at the school about the incident.