AP gets the bird for an 'exclusive' from Brazil

Despite an over-abundance of news developments this week, AP went south of the border --- way south (far below the equator, in fact) --- for a five-paragraph story on two hawks that have been bombarding residents of the upscale (AP's words) Ipanema Beach section of Rio de Janeiro over the past year.

What's even more puzzling is that some newspapers ran with the piece.  One daily displayed it as one of the two stories at the top of much-viewed page 3 of the main news section.  That same publication, incidentally, recently dropped its daily stock market and mutual funds tables to conserve highly-prized editorial space --- probably to run more exclusives on bird bites man.