Today's Odd News - Reuters News Headlines - Yahoo! News:
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U.S. border cops nab go-kart hauling Mexican pot
Thu,2 Feb 2012 07:08 AM PST
Reuters -  (Reuters) - U.S. border cops in far-west Arizona have seized an off-road go-kart and trailer packed with marijuana, in the latest bizarre attempt by Mexican smugglers to beat beefed up border security. The Border Patrol's Yuma sector said agents and officers from the Cocopah Tribal Police Department spotted the single-seater go-kart hauling a trailer through the desert near Yuma, Arizona on Tuesday night and gave chase. ...
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Big freeze stops famed Brussels statue from peeing
Wed,1 Feb 2012 09:47 AM PST
Reuters - BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The Manneken-Pis, a bronze statue of a young boy urinating that is a symbol of Brussels and a major tourist attraction, has had to stop peeing because of sub-zero temperatures, Belgium's tourist office said on Wednesday. Officials turned off the flow of water through the statue, which has stood on a Brussels corner since the 1600s, out of concern the cold might damage its internal mechanism. Temperatures in the Belgian capital were set to fall to minus 10 Celsius (14 degrees Fahrenheit) Wednesday night, far below the average minimum for February. ... Full Story | Top |
China bans toddler palm-reading assessments
Tue,31 Jan 2012 11:38 PM PST
Reuters - BEIJING (Reuters) - China has banned kindergartens in a northern province from offering palm-reading tests that the schools had claimed could predict toddlers' intelligence level and potential, state news agency Xinhua reported on Wednesday. Although many parents in Taiyuan, capital of Shanxi province, eagerly brought their children to be tested, some later complained about the high cost and raised questions about the testing method, which test-givers said could reveal the children's aptitude in music, mathematics and languages. ... Full Story | Top |
Italian shoemaker pays record rent at London store
Tue,31 Jan 2012 10:19 AM PST
Reuters -  LONDON (Reuters) - Italian luxury shoemaker Salvatore Ferragamo is close to agreeing a deal to pay a record UK rent at its Bond Street store that will break the 1,000 pounds per square foot mark for the first time, a source familiar with the deal told Reuters. The deal would break the previous record of 965 pounds per square foot for the valuable Zone A front section of a store set by jeweler Piaget on the same glitzy central London shopping strip in December 2009. ...
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German city's parking fines are just the ticket
Tue,31 Jan 2012 07:03 AM PST
Reuters - BERLIN (Reuters) - German authorities are giving parking violators in one city an unexpected break by issuing tickets without fines. The tickets, put on carelessly parked cars in Potsdam, include a fine of 0 euros and the cheerful message "Glueck gehabt!!!" (Lucky you!!!). The new approach is designed to admonish motorists without hitting them in the wallet. "The tickets serve as a warning to parking offenders," said Regina Thielemann, a city of Potsdam spokeswoman. "They're issued when the driver isn't around. So they're given written notice when they'd ordinarily only get a verbal warning. ... Full Story | Top |
Toddlers subjected to palm-reading assessments in China
Tue,31 Jan 2012 12:05 AM PST
Reuters - BEIJING (Reuters) - Several kindergartens in a province in northern China are charging parents 1,200 yuan ($190) for a palm-reading test that they claim can predict their toddlers' intelligence and potential, state news agency Xinhua said. Many parents have flocked to palm readers for the test, used in kindergartens in northern Shanxi province and designed for children above the age of three months, the report said. ... Full Story | Top |
German beer drinking slide stopped by warm weather
Mon,30 Jan 2012 08:42 AM PST
Reuters -  BERLIN (Reuters) - A steady slide in beer consumption in Germany was stopped cold last year thanks to warmer weather, the federal statistics office said on Monday. German brewers sold 98.2 million hectoliters of beer last year, down by just 0.1 percent in 2011 after dropping by an average of two percent every year since 2006. Beer consumption in Germany had fallen in all but two of the last 10 years. Despite Germany's reputation as a nation of beer lovers, young people are turning away from the national beverage in favour of other non-alcoholic beverages, brewers say. ...
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School bans fuzzy boots used to hide cell phones
Mon,30 Jan 2012 07:32 AM PST
Reuters - PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - Singer Nancy Sinatra may have had boots made for walking, but she never attended Pottstown Middle School. Starting Monday the Philadelphia suburban district is banning the wearing of fuzzy open-top boots, including the popular Ugg brand, to middle school classes because students have been stashing cell phones in the loose footwear, according to district director of community relations John Armato. "Cell phones are a problem for obvious reasons," Armato said. ... Full Story | Top |
Babette's errant email cripples German parliament
Thu,26 Jan 2012 06:31 AM PST
Reuters - BERLIN (Reuters) - The German parliament's email system was hampered for several hours for more than 4,000 staffers and deputies when hundreds of workers responded to an errant email sent by one staffer named "Babette" to all 4,032 co-workers. The flood of emails began when "Babette" accidentally replied to "all" on the Bundestag email list with a short answer to a colleague: "Please bring me a copy of the new directory. ... Full Story | Top |
Four-year-old U.S. boy pulls out marijuana at school
Wed,25 Jan 2012 03:09 PM PST
Reuters - (Reuters) - A four-year-old U.S. boy who announced to his teacher at school snack time that he wanted to share pulled nine bags of marijuana out of his jacket pocket, police said on Wednesday. Police in Meriden, Connecticut were called to Hanover Elementary School Tuesday afternoon after the young special needs student displayed the drugs, authorities said. Meriden police said the nine individually wrapped bags of marijuana appeared prepared for sale. ... Full Story | Top |
$5 here, $37 there: Americans' indulgences add up
Wed,25 Jan 2012 05:16 AM PST
Reuters -  NEW YORK (Reuters) - Those venti lattes add up. U.S. workers spend more than $1,000 a year on coffee and another $2,000 on lunch, with men and young workers more willing to indulge in a $5 coffee than women or older colleagues, according to a survey of Americans' workplace spending habits. The survey, by Accounting Principals, a unit of staffing services company Adecco SA, found that U.S. workers, on average, spend $37 per week for lunch, but men spend more: $47 a week, versus $27 for women. ...
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Irishman makes "billion-euro home" of shredded notes
Wed,25 Jan 2012 01:49 AM PST
Reuters -  DUBLIN (Reuters) - An unemployed Irish artist has built a home from the shredded remains of 1.4 billion euros ($1.82 billion), a monument to the "madness" he says has been wrought on Ireland by the single currency, from a spectacular construction boom to a wrenching bust. Frank Buckley built the apartment in the lobby of a Dublin office building that has lain vacant since its completion four years ago at the peak of an ill-fated construction boom, using bricks of shredded euro notes he borrowed from Ireland's national mint. ...
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London's Big Ben is leaning, parliament sinking: reports
Tue,24 Jan 2012 11:14 AM PST
Reuters -  LONDON (Reuters) - The landmark clock tower containing Big Ben at Britain's Palace of Westminster, is tilting, while media reports Monday said the mother of all parliaments was slipping into the River Thames, raising fears over its future. The House of Commons commission, which is responsible for the upkeep of the 19th century neo-Gothic parliamentary estate popular with tourist photographs, was due to meet Monday. ...
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London's Big Ben is leaning, parliament sinking: reports
Mon,23 Jan 2012 08:27 AM PST
Reuters - LONDON (Reuters) - The landmark clock tower containing Big Ben at Britain's Palace of Westminster, is tilting, while media reports Monday said the mother of all parliaments was slipping into the River Thames, raising fears over its future. The House of Commons commission, which is responsible for the upkeep of the 19th century neo-Gothic parliamentary estate popular with tourist photographs, was due to meet Monday. ...
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Greece publishes tax dodger list to name and shame
Mon,23 Jan 2012 07:03 AM PST
Reuters - ATHENS (Reuters) - A famous singer and a retired basketball star were on a list of 4,000 top tax dodgers released by the Greek government as part of a name-and-shame policy to get evaders to pay up. Tax evasion is endemic in Greece and its international lenders, the EU and the IMF, have insisted Athens improve tax collection if they are to continue bankrolling the debt-laden country. ... Full Story | Top |
China driving schools teaching millions the art of war
Fri,20 Jan 2012 12:01 AM PST
Reuters -  BEIJING (Reuters) - China is rapidly becoming a country on wheels and its crowded driving schools are racing to churn out licensed drivers as fast as cars roll off the assembly lines. But judging by the daily smash-ups and blatant disregard for even basic traffic rules on China's roadways, quantity seems to have trumped quality at many schools. China surpassed the United States in 2009 to become the world's largest auto market, and just as newly affluent Chinese are snapping up expensive cars in staggering numbers, driving schools are bursting at the seams. ...
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Close shave for Britain's eBay athlete
Tue,17 Jan 2012 11:46 AM PST
Reuters -  LONDON (Reuters) - A shaving company has come to the rescue of a British athlete who put himself up for auction on eBay to secure sponsorship for the London Olympics only to find the winning bidder was a hoax. Top sprinter James Ellington thought he had raised 32,550 pounds ($50,000) through the website after receiving 71 bids from 45 interested parties in an auction that closed in December. "Going on eBay gave me amazing exposure but unfortunately the winning bidder wasn't genuine," the 26-year-old Londoner said in a statement Tuesday. ...
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Colombia rebels selling cows as drug money drops: Santos
Mon,16 Jan 2012 01:58 PM PST
Reuters - BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said on Monday the country's largest rebel group was increasingly selling its cattle to finance South America's longest-running insurgency as income from trafficking cocaine drops. Colombia's Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, has been reeling from more than a decade of a U.S.-backed military offensive that has dealt it major blows and cut cocaine output in one of the world's top producers of the drug. "The FARC is designing a complete strategy to counter the problem of lack of financing ... ... Full Story | Top |
Modern trading killing off "barrow boy" market slang
Mon,16 Jan 2012 05:05 AM PST
Reuters -  LONDON (Reuters) - "The Old Lady just bought half a yard of cable and there are plenty of bids for Bill and Ben." Confused? To most foreign exchange traders in London's "City" financial district that sentence would make perfect sense: "The Bank of England just bought half a billion British pounds against the U.S. dollar and there's interest to buy the Japanese yen. ...
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Iran cracks down on moral peril of Barbie peddlers
Mon,16 Jan 2012 04:48 AM PST
Reuters -  TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's morality police are cracking down on the sale of Barbie dolls to protect the public from what they see as pernicious western culture eroding Islamic values, shopkeepers said on Monday. As the West imposes the toughest ever sanctions on Iran and tensions rise over its nuclear program, inside the country the Barbie ban is part of what the government calls a "soft war" against decadent cultural influences. "About three weeks ago they (the morality police) came to our shop, asking us to remove all the Barbies," said a shopkeeper in a toy shop in northern Tehran. ...
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Troubled euro gains currency with counterfeiters
Mon,16 Jan 2012 02:45 AM PST
Reuters - FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Europe's debt crisis may be threatening to unravel the euro but criminals increasingly see the single currency as worth counterfeiting. The number of fake euro banknotes found in the second half of last year rose by 4.7 percent to 310,000 bills from the prior six months, the European Central Bank said Monday, though it hastened to add that the vast majority of euros were real. "When compared with the number of genuine euro banknotes in circulation (on average 14. ... Full Story | Top |
Banned Bulgarian soccer referee uses false identity
Fri,13 Jan 2012 01:29 PM PST
Reuters - SOFIA (Reuters) - A banned Bulgarian referee took charge of this week's friendly between Werder Bremen and AZ Alkmaar under a false identity, state television BNT reported on Friday. BNT said Luchezar Yonov used the name of fellow countryman and eligible referee Raicho Raichev for Wednesday's game played in the Turkish resort of Belek. "This story convinces us the decision we took last year was right," Bulgarian Football Union (BFU) refereeing commission chairman Kostadin Kostadinov told state television. ... Full Story | Top |
Modern trading killing off "barrow boy" market slang
Fri,13 Jan 2012 02:27 AM PST
Reuters -  LONDON (Reuters) - "The Old Lady just bought half a yard of cable and there are plenty of bids for Bill and Ben." Confused? To most foreign exchange traders in London's "City" financial district that sentence would make perfect sense: "The Bank of England just bought half a billion U.S. dollars worth of British pounds against the dollar and there's interest to buy the Japanese yen. ...
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Hospital rooms may be nearly as noisy as chainsaws: study
Thu,12 Jan 2012 08:31 AM PST
Reuters - (Reuters) - Everybody knows hospital rooms are noisy, but now a study has confirmed it -- with the added finding that noise levels may sometimes spike to nearly that of a chainsaw. "The hospital environment is certainly not a restful environment," said Vineet Arora, at the University of Chicago, who led the study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine. ... Full Story | Top |
"Rocket man" Kim Jong-il immortalized in North Korea
Thu,12 Jan 2012 08:30 AM PST
Reuters - SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea declared February 16 the "Day of the Shining Star" to commemorate the birthday of late "Great Leader" Kim Jong-il, using the same name as a long-range rocket developed under his trademark songun, or military first, policy. During his 17-year reign, Kim oversaw major developments in the North's military -- mainly a nuclear weapons program and work toward building a long-range ballistic missile. The secretive state also announced Kim's body will lie in state permanently at the same mausoleum housing his father's embalmed body. ... Full Story | Top |
Half-naked South Korean soldiers train for winter war
Wed,11 Jan 2012 10:46 PM PST
Reuters - SEOUL (Reuters) - Cool under fire took on new meaning for more than 200 South Korean soldiers this week as they stripped off their shirts, flung snow on each other and walked through an ice-encrusted stream -- all part of drills to hone endurance. North and South Korea have yet to sign a peace treaty after the 1950-1953 Korean War, and tension remains high along the Demilitarized zone (DMZ) that splits the peninsula -- particularly after the North's young new leader, Kim Jong-un, assumed power last month. ... Full Story | Top |
Magpies and bears mourn North Korea's "Dear Leader"
Mon,9 Jan 2012 12:17 AM PST
Reuters -  SEOUL (Reuters) - The passing of North Korean strongman Kim Jong-il has been marked by plunging temperatures, mourning bears and now, according to North Korean state media, by flocks of magpies. Kim, who died in December aged 69 years after 17 years running the world's most reclusive state, was reputed to be able to control the weather, as well as to have scored a miraculous 38 under par round of golf. ...
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Australian survives terrifying fall after bungee snaps
Sun,8 Jan 2012 10:40 PM PST
Reuters - SYDNEY (Reuters) - An Australian woman has survived a terrifying fall after her bungee cord snapped during a 111-metre (364-feet) leap off Africa's Victoria Falls Bridge, plunging her into the crocodile-infested Zambezi River below. Erin Langworthy, who suffered only cuts and bruises in the fall on New Year's Eve, according to the Sydney Morning Herald, said it was a "miracle" that she had survived the plunge into the rapids below the bridge, which borders Zambia and Zimbabwe. "It felt like I had been slapped all over," the 22-year-old from Perth told Australia's Channel Nine television. ... Full Story | Top |
Taiwan's Ma to win election? The stars have foreseen it
Fri,6 Jan 2012 02:45 AM PST
Reuters -  TAIPEI (Reuters) - The stars are aligning for Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou to narrowly win re-election at the island's January 14 election, but he'll only get by with a little help from his wife, according to a well-known Taiwan fortune teller. Chan Wei-chung, who has been divining destinies for 30 years and is an adviser to many of Taiwan's glitterati, told Reuters Friday that Ma will have the edge but will need his wife's help to offset the forces acting against him. ...
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Colorado woman accused of damaging $30 million painting
Thu,5 Jan 2012 04:20 PM PST
Reuters -  DENVER (Reuters) - A 36-year-old woman was accused of causing $10,000 worth of damage to a painting by the late abstract expressionist artist Clyfford Still, a work valued at more than $30 million, authorities said on Wednesday. A police report said Carmen Tisch punched and scratched the painting, an oil-on-canvas called "1957-J no.2", at the recently opened Clyfford Still museum in Denver and pulled her pants down to slide her buttocks against it. ...
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Women are a mystery to British physicist Hawking
Fri,6 Jan 2012 07:51 AM PST
Reuters -  LONDON (Reuters) - The biggest mystery in the universe perplexing one of the world's best known scientists is -- women. When New Scientist magazine asked "Brief History of Time" author Stephen Hawking what he thinks about most, the Cambridge University professor renowned for unraveling some of the most complex questions in modern physics answered: "Women. They are a complete mystery. ...
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Give slim kids higher marks, says French diet guru
Wed,4 Jan 2012 01:57 PM PST
Reuters - PARIS (Reuters) - Pierre Dukan, the nutritionist behind the popular but controversial Dukan diet, has suggested that France tackle child obesity by giving extra exam marks for slimness. Dukan, who has sold 8 million copies of his diet book worldwide, made the proposal in a 250-page book called 'An Open Letter to the Future President', which he sent out on Tuesday to 16 candidates for France's presidential election. ... Full Story | Top |
Maldives lifts ban on luxury resort spas
Wed,4 Jan 2012 01:56 PM PST
Reuters -  COLOMBO (Reuters) - A ban on luxury spas at hotels and massage parlors in the Maldives was lifted on Wednesday under pressure from the country's key tourism industry a week after it was imposed as part of an effort to curb perceived vice. "We have lifted the ban and all the services will be available for tourists," President Nasheed told Reuters by telephone from the Maldives capital Male. "We wanted to give confidence to tourists. ...
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Two die, 561 hurt in Italian New Year celebrations
Sun,1 Jan 2012 06:53 AM PST
Reuters - ROME (Reuters) - Two men were killed and 561 other people were wounded as Italians celebrated the New Year with massive displays of illegal and homemade fireworks, the Interior Ministry said on Sunday. Of those wounded, 76 were children under the age of 12. Marking New Year's Eve festivities with fireworks is a deadly Italian tradition. Up to 2,000 cities, towns and villages had banned them this year, but police said they still seized thousands of tonnes of fireworks, including more than a thousand rocket launchers. ... Full Story | Top |
Hello Heidi to bye bye bunga bunga in 2011 odd news
Fri,30 Dec 2011 07:09 AM PST
Reuters -  LONDON (Reuters) - Bunga Bunga, Zenga Zenga, a tweeting cobra and other wacky news capped a year that saw the capture of America's most wanted man and the overthrow of dictators. 2011 was filled with animal antics that began with the introduction of Heidi, the cross-eyed opossum, as the latest feral German celebrity to capture hearts around the world. The star of Leipzig Zoo made an appearance on U.S. ...
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New Year's Day to come early as Samoa leaps ahead
Thu,29 Dec 2011 05:20 PM PST
Reuters - CANBERRA (Reuters) - If you are reading this on Friday you cannot be in Samoa. Friday, December 30, has been cut this year for the tiny South Pacific island nation as it ditched a time-zone alliance with the United States and moved its time zone 24 hours ahead to catch up with Asia, New Zealand and Australia. ... Full Story | Top |
Stressed Chinese fight back - with pillows
Wed,28 Dec 2011 12:44 PM PST
Reuters - SHANGHAI (Reuters) - A whirlwind of pillows bearing the names of bosses and teachers filled the air as hundreds of Chinese gathered to blow off stress in Shanghai, staging a massive pillow battle. The annual event marked its fifth year with such a surge in interest from stressed young office workers and students that organizers held two nights of pillow fighting before Christmas Day and plan another for Dec 30. ... Full Story | Top |
For the not-so-serious drinker: Marshmallow vodka
Wed,28 Dec 2011 12:29 PM PST
Reuters -  NEW YORK (Reuters) - Vodkas flavored with citrus and berry have been around for years and recently some newer brands have been trying to create buzz with unusual flavors. But this holiday season, for the first time, the world's largest vodka brand is trying to appeal to Americans' sweet tooth with zany flavors like "fluffed marshmallow" and "whipped cream." Faced with relentless competition from established and upstart brands, Smirnoff's owner -- the London-based beverage group Diageo Plc -- took inspiration from things like cookie-scented candles and vanilla-scented laundry soap. ...
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Venezuela's Chavez: did U.S. give Latin American leaders cancer?
Wed,28 Dec 2011 12:09 PM PST
Reuters -  CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez speculated on Wednesday that the United States might have developed a way to give Latin American leaders cancer, after Argentina's Cristina Fernandez joined the list of presidents diagnosed with the disease. It was a typically controversial statement by Venezuela's socialist leader, who underwent surgery in June to remove a tumor from his pelvis. But he stressed that he was not making any accusations, just thinking aloud. "It would not be strange if they had developed the technology to induce cancer and nobody knew about it until now ... ...
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Now or never for workers as "Elvis" the croc strikes again
Wed,28 Dec 2011 10:17 AM PST
Reuters -  SYDNEY (Reuters) - Two workers at a reptile park near Sydney were all shook up Wednesday, running for their lives when a 500 kg crocodile named Elvis suddenly lunged at them, making off with their lawnmower. Five-meter long Elvis was already not exactly a hunk of burning love, having eaten two girlfriends at another crocodile park where he lived. He struck again Wednesday, surging out of the water while the workers performed routine maintenance nearby. ...
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