Odds ‘n’ Ends: Haphazard application for admission causes bomb scare at Eastern Illinois

Last updated on May 12, 2016 at 01:52 p.m.

CHARLESTON, Ill. – Here’s a tip for aspiring college students: Make sure your applications don’t warrant a visit from the bomb squad.

Emergency crews evacuated an Eastern Illinois University building Friday, after a campus postal carrier discovered a disheveled-looking package heading for the college’s admissions office.

“There was no return address, it was poorly written, poorly addressed to the University, there were misspellings,” school spokeswoman Vicki Woodard said Saturday. “There was some tape over it. Just the overall appearance was rather strange.”

The stuffed-and-stained envelope was strange enough that police alerted the bomb squad.

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Explosives investigators X-rayed the package and blocked off a nearby street before they discovered the envelope contained only an application to the 12,500-student school.

Woman faces charges for kissing, defacing painting in French museum

MARSEILLE, France – A woman has been arrested on suspicion of kissing a painting by American artist Cy Twombly and smudging the bone-white canvas with her lipstick, French judicial officials said Saturday.

Police said they arrested the woman after she kissed the work on Thursday. She is to be tried in a court in the southern city of Avignon on Aug. 16 for “damage to a work of art,” judicial officials said.

The painting, which is worth an estimated $2 million, was on display at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Avignon.

From Associated Press reports