Bizarre news item of the day

Shamsu Miah declared a personal
jihad on infidel swans

Hey! Here's an alternative for those of you tired of the same old turkey on this Thanksgiving day. A Muslim man of Bangladeshi descent in Britain has been convicted of killing and attempting to eat a wild swan during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. It seems the man was a tad hungry.

Shamshu Miah stabbed the bird and bit its neck at a boating lake in a popular tourist resort.

Police found the 52-year-old with blood on his clothes and feathers in his beard when they were called to the West Shore boating pool in the seaside town of Llandudno, North Wales.

They confronted Bangladeshi-born Miah, who told the police: "I am a Muslim, I am fasting, I had to eat.

"I was hungry, I had to eat the swan. I killed it, I stabbed it.

"I did nothing wrong, it was just a bird, I needed to eat."

It is forbidden for Muslims to eat during daylight hours over the Islamic month of Ramadan.

One of the officers told Miah it was illegal to kill a swan because it was the property of the Queen, to which Miah replied: "I hate the Queen, I hate this country."

Happy Thanksgiving!