Police protect a pet hamster, and more

Police protect a pet hamster

Oregon police have taken a woman’s pet hamster into “protective custody” after she was charged with driving while intoxicated with the animal on her lap. After Nicole Huey, 27, was arrested, she allegedly told police that she had no one who could come look after the pet and that they should “just kill it.” Huey’s request will not be honored, said a police spokesman, who reminded the public that “it is not safe to operate a motor vehicle with any type of animal on your lap.”

Sarah Palin as fitness guru

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Sarah Palin is remaking herself as a fitness guru—but her new obsession with thinness is worrying friends, says the National Enquirer. Palin, 48, knows her career as a politician and pundit is over, and so has written a fitness book and plans to issue DVDs and workout gear. But the former vice presidential candidate now works out so obsessively that she’s dropped to 93 pounds. “Sarah’s become a shadow of her former self,’’ a friend said. “It’s really alarming.’’

The power of teenage sleep

A British teenager slept through a car crashing into his bedroom. Ben London, 15, was deep in the kind of sleep only teenagers can manage when the Audi A4 came flying through the wall, sending bricks flying and covering him in white dust. “I was woken up by my mum shouting,” London said. “I couldn’t see anything, just white, because the car lights were lighting up the dust.” He feels lucky to have escaped uninjured, especially since his parents will now have to redo his room. “I will have all new stuff,” London said, “so I’m pretty pleased about that.”