India captures ‘spying’ pigeon on Kashmir border
And other stories from the stranger side of life
A pigeon suspected of being trained to “spy” by Pakistan has been captured in India along the Kashmir border. Indian officials say the bird was carrying a “coded message” which they are trying to decipher. In 2016, police in India found a bird with a note attached to it inscribed with an alleged threat to Indian prime minister Narendra Modi.
People jarred farts during the Black Death
As scientists scramble to find a vaccine for the coronavirus, the Daily Star notes that during the Black Death, doctors believed that inhaling the farts of people with the disease could make you immune to it. This led to people keeping jars of infected wind in their homes that would be opened in case the deadly plague reappeared.
Adolf Hitler's alligator dies in Moscow
An 84-year-old alligator believed to have once been a pet of Adolf Hitler has died. The creature died at the Moscow Zoo, where it had lived since being discovered by British soldiers and presented to Russia in the 1940s at the end of the Second World War. The zoo said animals shouldn’t be judged based on who they might have had as an owner.
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