Today's Odd News - Reuters News Headlines - Yahoo! News: - No need for kangaroo harvest reports: California governor
- Player's dad breaks Alabama's championship crystal football
- Human-made earthquakes reported in central U.S
- Dutch bug cookbook launched to stir taste for insects
- Faith motivates tongue piercing in Nepal village
- Newt nipped by zoo penguin, gets Band-Aid
- Newt nipped by zoo penguin, gets Band-Aid
- Sleepy Air Canada pilot thought Venus was a plane
- Philippine runners race to survive zombie horde
- Shooting zombies is the fad among gun enthusiasts
- El Salvador heralds 1st murder-free day in nearly three years
- Mayor of Newark, N.J., carries woman from burning home
- Argentina's "Miracle Baby" takes turn for the worse
- Mayor of Newark, N.J., carries woman from burning home
- More Americans freezing than sleeping on assets: poll
- German runaway Yvonne the cow nets moo-vie deal
- Unwelcome visitor leaves teeth wounds on Louisiana motel guest
- UCLA apologizes for erroneous admissions notice snafu
- Argentine hospital blamed after "dead" baby found alive
- Ohio man charged after six puppies found in suitcase
- Kindergarten boy brings heroin to show and tell
- When it comes to war, beer beats silver and gold
- New Jersey man survives 4-inch nail in heart
- Wyoming town - population 1 - sells for $900,000 to Vietnamese buyer
- Wyoming town - population 1 - sells for $900,000 to Vietnamese buyer
- In Australia, the Easter...Bilby?
- Struggling waitress to keep $12,000 tip seized by police: attorney
- Malaysia denies tutus to blame for nixed ballet
- Filipino Catholics observe Lent with gory rituals
- Buy your own zip code: towns for sale in Montana, Wyoming
- Cheers! Toast the royal jubilee with English bubbly
- Tokyo chefs swell with anger over new blowfish laws
- South Korea looks to ease name pain for London
- Urine-soaked eggs a spring taste treat in China city
- Wife shot dead by husband after dog poops in house: police
- Medvedev reassures Russia his cat is safe
- Referee dishes out five red cards in dressing room
- Couple to wed live on Country Music Awards show
- Austrian saws off own foot to avoid work - report
- Ready, steady...stack at Japan competition
| | No need for kangaroo harvest reports: California governor Tue,17 Apr 2012 02:24 PM PDT Reuters - SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - California lawmakers won't be briefed any longer on kangaroo harvests in Australia under a plan to scrap more than 700 reports required by state law that Governor Jerry Brown unveiled on Tuesday. Australia's annual kangaroo harvest report, which California's Department of Fish and Game is required to track and provide to lawmakers, is one of 718 "unnecessary bureaucratic" reports discovered in audits of state agencies and departments ordered by Brown in December, according to a statement from his office. ... Full Story | Top | Player's dad breaks Alabama's championship crystal football Tue,17 Apr 2012 01:57 PM PDT Reuters - BIRMINGHAM, Alabama (Reuters) - The championship dream is intact, but the $30,000 crystal football trophy has been shattered at the University of Alabama. A player's father accidentally broke on Saturday the Waterford crystal football awarded to the Crimson Tide after the team defeated Louisiana State University in January for the national collegiate title, an athletics official said. The team was celebrating A-Day, an intra-squad scrimmage that marks the end of spring training, and trophies were on special display to allow people to take photographs with them. ... Full Story | Top | Human-made earthquakes reported in central U.S Tue,17 Apr 2012 01:50 PM PDT Reuters - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The number of earthquakes in the central United States rose "spectacularly" near where oil and gas drillers disposed of wastewater underground, a process that may have caused geologic faults to slip, U.S. government geologists report. The average number of earthquakes of magnitude 3 or greater in the U.S. midcontinent - an area that includes Arkansas, Colorado, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Texas - increased to six times the 20th century average last year, scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey said in an abstract of their research. ... Full Story | Top | Dutch bug cookbook launched to stir taste for insects Tue,17 Apr 2012 08:02 AM PDT Reuters - AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Need more protein in your diet? Try adding worms to your chocolate muffin recipe mix, or spice up a mushroom risotto with a sprinkling of grasshoppers. "The Insect Cookbook", which comes out on Tuesday and is written in Dutch, contains these and other unusual recipes and is intended to promote insects as a source of protein. "I see this as the next step towards the introduction of insects on restaurant menus in the Netherlands. ... Full Story | Top | Faith motivates tongue piercing in Nepal village Mon,16 Apr 2012 08:57 PM PDT Reuters - BODE, Nepal (Reuters) - Pressing his palms together, Jujubhai Basan Shrestha raises his hands, acknowledging greetings from the cheering crowd of devotees and onlookers. Sporting a white turban, the 31-year-old sits on a chair as a man inserts a 13 inch metal skewer through his tongue in a centuries-old ritual in this poor settlement, 12 km (8 miles) east of Kathmandu. ... Full Story | Top | Newt nipped by zoo penguin, gets Band-Aid Mon,16 Apr 2012 06:41 PM PDT Reuters - ST. LOUIS (Reuters) - Things have not been going all that well for Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich lately, even at one of his favorite places - the zoo. Newt was nipped on the finger by a penguin during a private tour of the famous St. Louis zoo on Friday before he spoke to the National Rifle Association convention, zoo officials confirmed on Monday. Gingrich, who is trailing in the Republican race for the White House and is under pressure to withdraw, passed unscathed through Big Cat Country and avoided contact with the crocodiles in the Herpetarium. ... Full Story | Top | Newt nipped by zoo penguin, gets Band-Aid Mon,16 Apr 2012 04:51 PM PDT Reuters - ST. LOUIS (Reuters) - Things have not been going all that well for Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich lately, even at one of his favorite places - the zoo. Newt was nipped on the finger by a penguin during a private tour of the famous St. Louis zoo on Friday before he spoke to the National Rifle Association convention, zoo officials confirmed on Monday. Gingrich, who is trailing in the Republican race for the White House and is under pressure to withdraw, passed unscathed through Big Cat Country and avoided contact with the crocodiles in the Herpetarium. ... Full Story | Top | Sleepy Air Canada pilot thought Venus was a plane Mon,16 Apr 2012 03:46 PM PDT Reuters - OTTAWA (Reuters) - A sleepy Air Canada pilot first mistook the planet Venus for an aircraft, and then sent his airliner diving toward the Atlantic to prevent an imaginary collision with another plane, an official report said on Monday. Sixteen passengers and crew were hurt in the January 2011 incident, when the first officer rammed the control stick forward to avoid a U.S. plane he wrongly thought was heading straight toward him. ... Full Story | Top | Philippine runners race to survive zombie horde Mon,16 Apr 2012 04:23 AM PDT Reuters - LAGUNA PROVINCE, Philippines (Reuters) - Natural and man-made obstacles studded the course of a Philippine race, but the real danger to the thousands of runners came from the hordes of "zombies". About five thousand people dashed along the five km (three mile) course of the survival-themed race in Laguna Province, about 38 km south of Manila, dodging an assortment of the walking undead in the contest based on a popular U.S. race. ... Full Story | Top | Shooting zombies is the fad among gun enthusiasts Sun,15 Apr 2012 07:31 PM PDT Reuters - ST. LOUIS (Reuters) - One of Patrick Flanagan's favorite movies as a kid was "Night of the Living Dead," a 1968 horror film about a family trapped in a rural Pennsylvania house and attacked by zombies. "I really dug zombie stuff since then," said Flanagan, 23, an unemployed concrete worker from Alton, in southern Illinois. So Flanagan combined his interest in zombies with another hobby - guns. ... Full Story | Top | El Salvador heralds 1st murder-free day in nearly three years Sun,15 Apr 2012 04:07 PM PDT Reuters - SAN SALVADOR (Reuters) - No one was murdered in El Salvador on Saturday, officials said, in what was the first homicide-free day in nearly three years for the Central American country plagued by violent drug gangs. "After years when the number of murders reached alarming levels of up to 18 per day, we saw not one homicide in the country," President Mauricio Funes said in a statement released on Sunday. The murder-free day was the first recorded since leftist Funes took office in June 2009. ... Full Story | Top | Mayor of Newark, N.J., carries woman from burning home Sat,14 Apr 2012 06:27 AM PDT Reuters - NEWARK (Reuters) - The mayor of the struggling New Jersey city of Newark said on Friday he was no super hero, only a good neighbor when he broke free from his security detail in a burning house and rescued a woman. Cory Booker arrived at his Newark home on Thursday night to find his next-door neighbor's house ablaze. His neighbor said her middle-aged daughter was trapped upstairs and begged for help. ... Full Story | Top | Argentina's "Miracle Baby" takes turn for the worse Fri,13 Apr 2012 04:14 PM PDT Reuters - BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - A baby declared stillborn and then later found alive by her parents at a morgue in Argentina was in critical condition on Friday after taking a turn for the worse overnight, a hospital official said. Doctors told Analia Bouter that her baby was stillborn when she gave birth in Argentina's northern Chaco province at the start of the month. But 12 hours after her birth, when Bouter and her husband pried open the wooden coffin inside the refrigerated morgue to see her one last time, they found the baby not only breathing but yawning and stretching her arms. ... Full Story | Top | Mayor of Newark, N.J., carries woman from burning home Fri,13 Apr 2012 10:33 AM PDT Reuters - NEWARK (Reuters) - The mayor of the struggling New Jersey city of Newark said on Friday he was no super hero, only a good neighbor when he broke free from his security detail in a burning house and rescued a woman. Cory Booker arrived at his Newark home on Thursday night to find his next-door neighbor's house ablaze. His neighbor said her middle-aged daughter was trapped upstairs and begged for help. ... Full Story | Top | More Americans freezing than sleeping on assets: poll Fri,13 Apr 2012 09:19 AM PDT Reuters - NEW YORK (Reuters) - Forget the mattress, a quarter of Americans who keep money in their homes are hiding it in their freezers, according to a new survey. The Marist poll showed that 27 percent of Americans preferred to literally freeze their assets, compared to 11 percent who chose to sleep on their savings. "One in ten -- 10 percent -- buries their dough in the cookie jar while nine percent leave their loot in some other household location," Marist said in a statement. ... Full Story | Top | German runaway Yvonne the cow nets moo-vie deal Fri,13 Apr 2012 07:40 AM PDT Reuters - BERLIN (Reuters) - Yvonne the German cow evaded helicopter searches, dodged the hunter's gun and even eschewed her calf and best friend for a life on the run. Now the tale of the runaway cow, who captivated the nation last year when she bolted from her farm to escape slaughter and roamed free in the Bavarian countryside for three months, will provide fodder for a Hollywood animated film. ... Full Story | Top | Unwelcome visitor leaves teeth wounds on Louisiana motel guest Thu,12 Apr 2012 06:23 PM PDT Reuters - NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - A six-foot alligator which showed up at the front door of a Baton Rouge-area motel on Wednesday might have departed without incident had it not been for an overly helpful guest, who later checked out of the motel with puncture wounds. A housekeeper at the Super 8 Motel just off Interstate 10 in Port Allen, Louisiana, spotted the gator as it crossed the driveway toward the motel at about 3 p.m. She called a maintenance worker, who called the hotel manager to come take a look. "He came up right by our front door to the lobby," Assistant Manager Tiffany Dunnam said. ... Full Story | Top | UCLA apologizes for erroneous admissions notice snafu Thu,12 Apr 2012 01:55 PM PDT Reuters - LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - As if college application season was not stressful enough for high school seniors, nearly 900 students seeking admission to UCLA were briefly led to believe they had been accepted to the highly competitive school, only to have their hopes dashed. The University of California, Los Angeles, has apologized for the confusion, which stemmed from an email notice sent to both newly admitted and wait-listed students saying their provisional scholarship aid had been increased and congratulating them on their admission to the campus. ... Full Story | Top | Argentine hospital blamed after "dead" baby found alive Wed,11 Apr 2012 02:04 PM PDT Reuters - BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - A mother whose newborn baby was found alive in an Argentine morgue 12 hours after being declared dead on Wednesday blamed hospital negligence for the near-fatal mistake. Doctors told Analia Bouter that her baby was stillborn when she gave birth in Argentina's northern Chaco province on April 3. But when she and her husband pried open the coffin inside the refrigerated morgue, they found the baby breathing. "We knelt down and thanked God for this miracle," Bouter told reporters. "The doctor always treated the baby as if she were dead ... ... Full Story | Top | Ohio man charged after six puppies found in suitcase Wed,11 Apr 2012 01:52 PM PDT Reuters - CLEVELAND (Reuters) - An Ohio man has been charged with animal abandonment after a litter of six English bulldog puppies was found in a suitcase with a tag bearing his name, according to Humane Society authorities. Cyndi Condit, spokeswoman for the Toledo Area Humane Society told Reuters Wednesday that the man, identified as Howard Davis of Toledo, lived only two blocks from where the suitcase was found. The mother of the puppies was found pacing around the suitcase, which attracted the attention of a passerby. ... Full Story | Top | Kindergarten boy brings heroin to show and tell Tue,10 Apr 2012 04:04 PM PDT Reuters - (Reuters) - A five-year-old boy brought packets of heroin to a show and tell at his Connecticut kindergarten, leading to the arrest of his stepfather, police said on Tuesday. The child was proudly displaying packets of a powdery substance to his kindergarten classmates in Bridgeport, Connecticut, on Monday when his teacher noticed what he was holding, Detective Keith Bryant of the Bridgeport Police Department said. "He was waving it around," Bryant said, adding that the teacher collected the packets and immediately notified her supervisors. ... Full Story | Top | When it comes to war, beer beats silver and gold Tue,10 Apr 2012 11:05 AM PDT Reuters - (Reuters) - The Dutch drank their way to victory and independence from Spain in 1648 through the taxes they paid on beer, according to a report in the April issue of the Journal of American Association of Wine Economists. Economists Koen Deconinck of the University of Leuven and Johann Swinnen of Stanford University wrote that taxes on beer "played a crucial role in financing the revolt ... (and) were the single largest revenue source" for the outnumbered and outgunned Dutch, who were facing "the mightiest empire on earth. ... Full Story | Top | New Jersey man survives 4-inch nail in heart Sun,8 Apr 2012 08:00 PM PDT Reuters - (Reuters) - A New Jersey man who survived accidentally shooting a 4-inch (10-cm) nail into his heart while trying to clear a jammed nail gun said on Friday he feels like he won the lottery. Dennis Hennis, 52, who was revived from cardiac arrest before being airlifted for surgery to Cooper University Hospital in Camden, New Jersey, laughed off Dr. Michael Rosenbloom's suggestion that he buy a lottery ticket. "I've already won the lottery," said Hennis of Vineland, New Jersey, in an interview. "I got a new grandson on my birthday on March 23 and a week later I'm almost dead. ... Full Story | Top | Wyoming town - population 1 - sells for $900,000 to Vietnamese buyer Sun,8 Apr 2012 07:59 PM PDT Reuters - SALMON, Idaho (Reuters) - The town of Buford, Wyoming - population 1 - was sold for $900,000 to an unidentified buyer from Vietnam on Thursday after an 11-minute Internet auction that attracted worldwide interest. The tiny Western town garnered online viewers and bidders from 46 countries for the sale of 10-plus acres with a convenience store, gas station and modular home located in southeastern Wyoming between Cheyenne and Laramie. ... Full Story | Top | Wyoming town - population 1 - sells for $900,000 to Vietnamese buyer Thu,5 Apr 2012 07:22 PM PDT Reuters - SALMON, Idaho (Reuters) - The town of Buford, Wyoming - population 1 - was sold for $900,000 to an unidentified buyer from Vietnam on Thursday after an 11-minute Internet auction that attracted worldwide interest. The tiny Western town garnered online viewers and bidders from 46 countries for the sale of 10-plus acres with a convenience store, gas station and modular home located in southeastern Wyoming between Cheyenne and Laramie. ... Full Story | Top | In Australia, the Easter...Bilby? Thu,5 Apr 2012 07:20 PM PDT Reuters - SYDNEY (Reuters) - The Easter Bunny's days as a furry seasonal icon may be numbered in Australia, as conservationists Down Under move to replace it with the Easter Bilby. The bilby is a rare marsupial that has long ears, a long muzzle, silky fur and a pouch like a kangaroo. Males grow to about the same size as a rabbit. But the animal is in trouble. Only some 600 are estimated to remain in the wild, and its habitat is being steadily eaten away by rabbits, which were introduced to Australia. ... Full Story | Top | Struggling waitress to keep $12,000 tip seized by police: attorney Thu,5 Apr 2012 01:37 PM PDT Reuters - (Reuters) - Police in Moorhead, Minnesota, will return a $12,000 tip they seized from a struggling local waitress, her attorney said on Thursday. Stacy Knutson, a server at the Fryn' Pan Restaurant in Moorhead, got the tip back in November from a customer who left a takeout box inside the restaurant. Knutson followed the customer out to parking lot and tried to give her the box but the woman told her to keep it. When Knutson opened it, she found $12,000 in cash. Knutson, a mother of five, called local police and turned in the cash as lost property. ... Full Story | Top | Malaysia denies tutus to blame for nixed ballet Thu,5 Apr 2012 03:33 AM PDT Reuters - SINGAPORE (Reuters) - The abrupt cancellation of shows by a Singaporean ballet troupe in Malaysia has caused a tempest in a tutu, with the government saying the dancers applied too late for a permit to perform, and a local group blaming cultural concern over "indecent" costumes. 'Ballet Illuminations' by the Singapore Dance Theatre was supposed to run this weekend, and many tickets had been sold for performances of The Nutcracker and other works. But without a permit, the show cannot go on. ... Full Story | Top | Filipino Catholics observe Lent with gory rituals Thu,5 Apr 2012 03:26 AM PDT Reuters - MABALACAT, Philippines (Reuters) - Hundreds of barefoot Filipinos marched on roads, carrying heavy wooden crosses and whipping their backs until they bled on Thursday in an annual gory religious ritual as the mainly Catholic Philippines observed near the end of the Lenten season. Many Filipino devotees perform religious penance during the week leading up to Easter Sunday as a form of worship and supplication, a practice discouraged by Catholic bishops, but widely believed by devotees to cleanse sins, cure illness and even grant wishes. ... Full Story | Top | Buy your own zip code: towns for sale in Montana, Wyoming Wed,4 Apr 2012 08:34 PM PDT Reuters - SALMON, Idaho (Reuters) - Buford, Wyoming, the nation's smallest town, will lose its long-time - and only - resident on Thursday when the outpost along Interstate 80 is auctioned off to the highest bidder. The minimum bid for Buford, 10-plus acres with a convenience store-cum-gas station situated between the capital city of Cheyenne and Laramie, Wyoming, is $100,000 for a sale to take place in town at noon local time. Buford is one of two tiny Western towns to be sold by owners whose spouses have died and whose adult children have moved on. Pray, Montana, population 8, is on the market for $1. ... Full Story | Top | Cheers! Toast the royal jubilee with English bubbly Tue,3 Apr 2012 04:45 AM PDT Reuters - LONDON (Reuters) - English wine producers are eyeing 2012 as the year home-grown wine, especially sparkling varieties, could become a mainstream product as retailers throw their weight behind it to coincide with Queen Elizabeth's Diamond Jubilee. Over the past decade improving quality, increasing volumes and solid performances at expert tastings have established English wine as more than a passion for amateurs, though it still accounts for less than 1 percent of the UK market. ... Full Story | Top | Tokyo chefs swell with anger over new blowfish laws Mon,2 Apr 2012 08:41 PM PDT Reuters - TOKYO (Reuters) - With a scoop of a net Tokyo chef Naohito Hashimoto selects a poisonous blowfish, considered a delicacy in Japan, and with a few deft strokes of his gleaming knife starts the delicate process of preparing it for a customer. In moments, Hashimoto has separated the edible parts of the fish from organs filled with a poison more deadly than cyanide. For more than six decades, dicing blowfish in Tokyo has been the preserve of a small band of strictly regulated and licensed chefs, usually in exclusive restaurants. ... Full Story | Top | South Korea looks to ease name pain for London Fri,30 Mar 2012 03:13 AM PDT Reuters - (Reuters) - South Korea is planning to unify the spelling of athletes names in English at this year's London Olympics to ease confusion among foreign journalists and fans, local media reported on Friday. The initiative will lead to a universal enforcement of the system revised in 2000, in which Koreans are required to use their family name before their given names, in accordance with the National Institute of the Korean Language. ... Full Story | Top | Urine-soaked eggs a spring taste treat in China city Thu,29 Mar 2012 03:08 AM PDT Reuters - DONGYANG, China (Reuters) - It's the end of a school day in the eastern Chinese city of Dongyang, and eager parents collect their children after a hectic day of primary school. But that's just the start of busy times for dozens of egg vendors across the city, deep in coastal Zhejiang province, who ready themselves to cook up a unique springtime snack favored by local residents. Basins and buckets of boys' urine are collected from primary school toilets. ... Full Story | Top | Wife shot dead by husband after dog poops in house: police Wed,28 Mar 2012 04:24 PM PDT Reuters - DALLAS (Reuters) - A 76-year-old Texas man was charged with murder for shooting his wife and two dogs after one of the animals pooped in the house. Police arrested Michael Stephen Stolz after a five-hour standoff at the man's home in the Dallas suburb of Lewisville late Tuesday. He was charged with murder in the shooting death of his wife, Bernice Stolz, and remained in the Denton County Jail on Wednesday on a $250,000 bond. Stolz told officers he shot his 49-year-old wife and the couple's two dogs after the German Shepherd mix defecated on the floor on Saturday, said Lewisville Police Capt. ... Full Story | Top | Medvedev reassures Russia his cat is safe Wed,28 Mar 2012 05:52 AM PDT Reuters - MOSCOW (Reuters) - President Dmitry Medvedev reassured Russians on Wednesday that his cat Dorofei was safe after reports that it had run away made him an object of satire on Twitter. "About the cat. A source close to #Dorofei says he has not got lost anywhere. Thank you all for your concern!" Medvedev tweeted from a trip to Asia. By then a newly created Twitter account in the cat's name had almost 400 followers and attracted many remarks making fun of Medvedev's subordinate relationship to President-elect Vladimir Putin. "It's simple. ... Full Story | Top | Referee dishes out five red cards in dressing room Wed,28 Mar 2012 01:41 AM PDT Reuters - LONDON (Reuters) - A referee sent off five players in the dressing rooms after a post-match brawl at an English League Two (fourth tier) game between Bradford City and promotion-chasing Crawley Town. "I can't believe this has happened," Bradford manager Phil Parkinson, who had three players shown red cards after the 2-1 home defeat on Tuesday night, told the BBC. "I have never been in a situation before where a ref has come into the dressing room, pulled players on one side and sent them off. He wouldn't allow me in there. ... Full Story | Top | Couple to wed live on Country Music Awards show Tue,27 Mar 2012 12:00 PM PDT Reuters - LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A New Jersey couple, who unexpectedly found love during the grief of bereavement, plan to marry on a country music awards show on Sunday and be serenaded by Martina McBride. Country fans Christina Davidson, 31, and Frank Tucci, 33, will exchange wedding vows live on television during the Academy of Country Music Awards in Las Vegas, show organizers said. Martina McBride and Train frontman Pat Monahan will perform their new single "Marry Me" as the couple marry onstage in what is thought to be a first live wedding during an awards show. ... Full Story | Top | Austrian saws off own foot to avoid work - report Mon,26 Mar 2012 06:52 AM PDT Reuters - VIENNA (Reuters) - An unemployed Austrian man sawed his foot off, apparently to avoid being found fit to go back to work. Hours before an appointment on Monday for the labor office to check on his health, the 56-year-old man held his left leg against an electric saw in his home workshop and severed his foot just above the ankle, Austrian broadcaster ORF reported. Bleeding profusely, the man from the province of Styria then threw the foot into an oven, hobbled to his garage and called an ambulance. An emergency operation was unable to reattach the foot, ORF said. ... Full Story | Top | Ready, steady...stack at Japan competition Mon,26 Mar 2012 05:23 AM PDT Reuters - TOKYO (Reuters) - More than 100 people gathered to vie for the title of Japan's fastest hands, competing to stack a set of plastic cups into a pyramid in the shortest time possible. The 2012 Sport Stacking competition allowed competitors to show off their skills in a "sport" that organizers say teaches eye-hand coordination, improves reaction time and uses as much energy as archery, bowling or volleyball. Using the 12 specially designed plastic cups, contestants took part in either individual, team relays or with a partner, with each person allowed to use only one hand. ... Full Story | Top |
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