WEIRD WORLD

POP RUPTURE: A flash flood of fruit juice from a beverage plant in southern Russia has flowed into a town’s streets and into the River Don.

The Prosecutor’s Office in the Lipetsk region said the roof of PepsiCo’s Lebedyansky factory collapsed, injuring two people.

The prosecutors said several tonnes of fruit juice had been spilled, and local media posted videos of torrents of a pinkish substance streaming down the streets. Authorities said they were monitoring pollution levels in the River Don, one of Russia’s longest, after the juice was reported to have spilled into the river.

SIPHON PYTHONS:

The US state of Florida is making it easier for people to help remove invasive Burmese pythons from the Everglades.

Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officials have announced new incentives to report and remove the giant constrictors blamed for decimating populations of native animals.

Under the Python Pickup Programme, anyone submitting the location and a photograph of a python removal on certain state-managed lands will receive a T-shirt and be entered into monthly prize draws. The scheme also extends to private lands, with landowners’ approval.

BABY BLUES: Two New York state troopers have teamed up to help deliver a woman’s baby in a vehicle on the side of a road after she could not make it to hospital.

The troopers responded to a report of a disabled vehicle on an Interstate 90 ramp near Albany, state police said. Kristi Koppenhafer, 25, of Gloversville, started giving birth in the vehicle while her husband was driving her to hospital, they said.

The two troopers helped the man assist his wife with the birth of a healthy girl as the vehicle was parked on the hard shoulder.