HERMOSILLO, Mexico (AP) — Drug smugglers are using an ancient invention as a new way to move marijuana across the border from Mexico to Arizona.

The discovery of two “drug catapults” in the Mexican state of Sonora marks the latest twist in the cat-and-mouse game traffickers play with authorities.

US National Guard troops operating a remote surveillance system at the Naco Border Patrol Station say they observed several people preparing a catapult and launching packages over the fence late last week.

A Mexican army officer says the three-metre tall catapult was found about 20 meters from the US border on a flatbed towed by a sports utility vehicle.

The officer says the c atapult was capable of launching 4.4 pounds (2 kilogrammes) of marijuana at a time. He says soldiers seized 35 pounds (16 kilogrammes) of pot, the vehicle and the catapult.

The smugglers left before they could be captured. The surveillance video of them using the catapult was released Wednesday.

A second catapult was discovered Thursday in near Agua Prieta, another border town.

The tie that ‘unbinds’

In this January 24, 2011 photo, John Stone of Chicago wears a Green Bay Packers tie. Stone was fired from his job as a car salesman at an Oak Lawn, Illinois dealership last week Monday after refusing to remove the tie after the Packers beat the Chicago Bears in the NFC Championship game. He said he wore the tie to honour his late grandmother, who was a big Green Bay fan. His boss said Stone was offered five chances to take off the tie and refused to do it.

Politically-incorrect sushi-eating

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — South Africa’s governing party has pronounced: eating sushi off the body of a model in a bikini is politically incorrect.

A Monday statement from African National Congress secretary general Gwede Mantashe is unequivocal: “This act is anti-ANC and anti-revolutionary. This act is defamatory, insensitive and undermining of woman’s integrity.”

The fish-on-flesh question has raged in South African media in recent months following reports of the practice at parties of wealthy businessmen and socialites. Earlier Monday, Johannesburg newspapers reported the head of the ANC’s powerful youth league had attended such a party over the weekend.

Mantashe adds: “The ANC is not into nightclubs or partying, but it is a revolutionary movement.”

‘Obama Robber’ on the loose

VIENNA, Austria (AP) — Say, isn’t that the president with a gun in his hand? Actually, no, but it sure looks like it.

Austrian authorities are searching for a bank robber who uses an unusual disguise: He wears a Barack Obama mask during his holdups.

Police say the man, nicknamed the “Obama Robber” by local media, is wanted for six heists since 2008. The most recent took place Thursday in the hamlet of Handenberg, where the Obama-resembling suspect made off with an undisclosed amount of money after threatening bank employees with a gun.

Police official Markus Mitloehner said Friday that the man is thought to be a local since he speaks the regional dialect — with nary a trace of Obama’s more professorial accent.

Sandbar mystery

MIAMI, USA (AP) — First, a baby grand piano mysteriously showed up on a Miami sandbar. A day after it was removed, a small table with two chairs, place settings, a bottle of wine and a chef statue appeared on the now-famous strip of sand.

The latest prank has officials worried the sandbar could become a target for more mischief and they are warning such activity is illegal. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission says anyone caught leaving items on the sandbar a few hundred yards (meters) from shore will be arrested.

A 16-year-old art student admitted that he put the piano on the sandbar in Biscayne Bay as part of an art project, and a crew removed it Thursday. The table for two has also been taken down.