Paté with Punch

Border police in China’s Yunnan province were suspicious when a man identified only as Li tried to cross the border with five ducks. They noticed three of the ducks were dead, and the man was nervous. Officers found 116 packets of heroin in the ducks’ stomachs. Li said he was paid $426 to smuggle the drugs; he faces possible execution. Meanwhile, the producers of a play in London, England, hired a duck for a two-minute waddle-on role. They were shocked to find the bird cost them 250 pounds (US$360) a day — versus the 292-pound weekly wage they would have to pay a human actor. “We have decided to hire an unemployed actor,” a company spokesman says, “dress him in a duck suit and give him a bigger part.” (AP, PA) ...Critics say the production quality immediately went south.