Max shades her 3 new young ones, who bring the number of her offspring to 26 in 9 years (photo ©2011 Heidi Buergermeister)

Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Good news for Max the Swiss stork fans: a third baby bird has been spotted in the nest, making Max’s 2011 family the same size as her usual ones. Only two young ones had been spotted before this week until official photographer and neighbour Heidi Buergermeister saw a third head.

Happy Mother’s Day this week to Max!

The three little ones bring to 26 the number of offspring she has had, in 9 years.

One of Switzerland’s best-loved families could well be Max the stork and her annual crop of babies. Max, who will soon be 12 years old, has been banded and tracked longer than any other bird in the world. She migrates every fall to southern Spain or northern Morocco, then returns to the Swiss-German border area, Tuefingen, on the north side of Lake Constance, to mate and have her young.

She was born in 1999 in Avenches, canton Vaud, and the Museum of Natural History in Fribourg follows her movements closely and keeps her growing fan club informed.

Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Friday often brings some of the world’s stranger bits of news, from amusing to weird to hard to believe:

• Young people who are not yet of voting age, in Geneva, Switzerland erected the first new and relatively small minaret, defying the 29 November popular vote that bans them: in the Place Neuve, out of cardboard. Institute of Race Relations, UK (Ed. note: here is a design for homemade miniature cardboard minarets, in case they suddenly sell out in Swiss shops)
• Manchester, England: a 29-year-old man was shot dead when he and friends were confronted outside the money exchange where he worked. Police say he was robbed for cash and for his laptop. A 20-year-old is in custody. Guardian, UK
• A heavily drunk man in the Perm Territory, in the Russian Urals, was saved from flames by his cat. He fell asleep with a cigarette in his hand and when the apartment burst into flames his cat leaped onto him, scratching his face until the man came to and phoned the fire department. Ria Novosti, Russia
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