Offbeat

Valentine wedding for deer and ram

A Chinese zoo is to hold a Valentine’s Day wedding for a male sheep and a female deer whose unconventional relationship captured the public imagination, the official Xinhua news agency said yesterday.
Visitors have flooded to the wildlife park in the southwestern province of Yunnan to see the sheep, whose Chinese name Changmao means long hair, and the deer, Chunzi (pure), after zookeepers revealed online that the pair had begun mating.
The wildlife park is to issue 500 special tickets, at 66 yuan (around USD 10) apiece, for the occasion, the state-run China News Service reported.
But experts warned against attaching human qualities to animals.
“Leaving them alone is the best choice,” Xinhua quoted biologist Wang Dajun as saying.

School take tardy pupils to police

Pupils who arrive late for school in South Africa’s Soweto township will be taken to a police station and their parents will be called to fetch them, the local education department said yesterday.
“It’s time for things to change. From tomorrow, anyone arriving late will be taken to the Jabulani police station,” Barbara Creecy, head of education for Gauteng province, told pupils at the Lavela Secondary School.
“We will then call your parents to come and collect you.”
About 700 pupils – 60 percent of the student body – and multiple teachers arrived late for classes Monday when Creecy paid a surprise visit to the school, her office said in a statement.
Many of the latecomers arrived between 30 and 60 minutes late for the 7:50 am bell, it said.
Creecy did not say whether tardy teachers would also be taken to the police.