The Fringe

January 26, 1996
Web posted at: 8:25 a.m. EST

You've got star quality, Baby!

LONDON (CNN) -- Wait! Before you pop that Jelly Baby into your mouth -- you could be eating a star. The gummy multicolored people-shaped chewable candies are getting agents and becoming stars of the small screen.

Britain's Winchester Multimedia said Thursday that it had joined Cadbury Schweppes and Just Group in developing a television series based on the Bassetts Jelly Babies.

The show's goal is to make Jelly Babies internationally known. There will also be worldwide distribution of Jelly Babies merchandise.

So be nice to that little green gummy guy sticking to the lint in your pocket. He knows some pretty important people. And be careful how you say, "Let's do lunch."

Australian bank misses a point, loses $814,000

COVINGTON, Kentucky (CNN) -- An Australian bank is hopping mad about a misplaced decimal point which cost them $814,000.

St. George Bank of Sydney claims that Kentucky lawyer Thomas Roberts cashed a check that should have been for $8,225.07, but the misplaced decimal put the amount at $822, 507.

Roberts received the check from a wire transfer from the bank and then converted the transaction to cash and purchased 18 cashiers checks.

It was not clear where the money went, and neither Roberts nor his attorney are answering questions about its whereabouts.

He's no rodent; he's our cousin. Maybe.

LONDON (CNN) -- A new report about our twitchy-nosed friends is likely to set biological classification on its floppy ear. It declares that rabbits and hares might be more closely related to humans than rodents.

Dan Graur and a team of researchers at Tel Aviv University said that they compared the proteins found in the tissues of rabbits to those of other animals and found that they had more similarities with primates than rodents.

Rabbits were tossed into the rodent family by Linnaeus, the 18th-century Swedish naturalist who invented the modern taxonomic system of naming plants and animals.

Excuse me, Mr. Ed, but do you have the proper change?

TOKYO (CNN) -- A racehorse who went for a 2-mile trot along a Tokyo highway Thursday must have been embarrassed when he didn't have proper change at the toll booth.

The 3-year-old filly bolted free from the stable at Oi racecourse on Tokyo Bay and decided that the highway was the way to go to get out of town.

But before he could gallop to glory, Super Otome was stopped at a toll gate by police. He was unhurt and didn't cause any traffic accidents.

Next time he makes a break for it, he'll probably take his wallet.

Pilot-turned-yogi emerges from hole

NEW DELHI, India (Reuter) -- Pilot Baba, Indian air force officer-turned-yogi, climbed out of a damp hole in the ground Thursday to the cheers of some 10,000 admirers.

The Hindu ascetic had spent four days meditating in the dank, covered pit on what his supporters claimed was virtually no air. Now, precisely at the chosen hour of 1 p.m., it was time to address his followers.

"It is a miracle," said retired army Capt. Mohan Lal Malla, one of thousands who pressed around the bare-chested, dark-bearded yogi as he emerged from the covered hole to stand in sunlight for the first time in some 100 hours.

Pilot Baba descended into the 9-foot-deep pit Sunday. Organizers of the "bhu-samadhi" -- Sanskrit for earth grave -- claim the hole was covered with earth and the former pilot who turned yogi in 1971 survived on almost no air.

"I had to minimize my breathing and survive without anything. No eating or drinking," the 57-year-old yoga adept said after his return to the surface.