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Friday, April 20, 2012 8:30 PM PDT

Today's Odd News - Reuters News Headlines - Yahoo! News: UK firm's 1,300 staff accidentally given marching orders South Korean bullfighting is for bulls only Starbucks to phase out coloring from crushed beetles Egyptian protesters take long walk to Tahrir China's Ai Weiwei hits Catch 22 in tax lawsuit No monkeying around for Japan man, fastest on four legs 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 UK firm's 1,300 staff accidentally given marching orders Fri,20 Apr 2012 03:07 PM PDT Reuters - LONDON (Reuters) - Workers at investment firm Aviva Investors got a shock on Friday when the company accidentally sent an email with leaving instructions intended for one departing employee to the entire worldwide staff of 1,300 people. The firm's human resources department realized its mistake and recalled the offending message 25 minutes later and soon afterwards sent out another email apologizing to staff for the error, company spokesman Paul Lockstone said. ... Full Story Top South Korean bullfighting is for bulls only Fri,20 Apr 2012 01:08 AM PDT Reuters - CHEONGDO, South Korea (Reuters) - There is no blood, nor much gore. No matador, either, or even his colorful cloak. In South Korea, bull fights bull. Weighing in at 600 kg to over 800 kg (1,322 to over 1,764 lb), dun-colored Korean Hanwoo bulls clash heads and horns in a sand bullring under the warm sunshine of Cheongdo, a rural town in the hills about two hours from the capital of Seoul. ... Full Story Top Starbucks to phase out coloring from crushed beetles Thu,19 Apr 2012 05:39 PM PDT Reuters - (Reuters) - Starbucks Corp said on its blog on Thursday that it will stop using a natural, government-approved coloring made from crushed beetles in its strawberry flavoring by late June, bowing to pressure from some vegetarian customers. Starbucks has been using the extract in its strawberry frappuccinos and smoothies, as well as some deserts like raspberry swirl cake. "After a thorough, yet fastidious, evaluation, I am pleased to report that we are reformulating the affected products to assure the highest quality possible," Cliff Burrows, president of Starbucks U.S., wrote in a blog post. ... Full Story Top Egyptian protesters take long walk to Tahrir Thu,19 Apr 2012 02:13 PM PDT Reuters - CAIRO (Reuters) - A group of Egyptians are marching 125 km (77 miles) along a major highway to Cairo to take part in a demonstration in Tahrir Square, stretching the boundaries of the country's flourishing culture of political activism. Fifteen activists decided to walk from their hometown of Suez across the desert to Cairo to show commitment to their cause: political reform and an end to the rule of army generals who have been running Egypt since Hosni Mubarak was removed from power by a mass uprising last year. ... Full Story Top China's Ai Weiwei hits Catch 22 in tax lawsuit Thu,19 Apr 2012 02:07 PM PDT Reuters - BEIJING (Reuters) - Dissident Chinese artist Ai Weiwei is learning a frustrating lesson about challenging Chinese authorities - he is welcome to sue the government over a festering tax case, but must first produce a company seal confiscated by police that he has no way of recovering. Ai sued the tax authorities over a 15 million yuan ($2.4 million) tax evasion penalty on the company he works for, Beijing Fake Cultural Development Ltd. ... Full Story Top No monkeying around for Japan man, fastest on four legs Wed,18 Apr 2012 05:58 AM PDT Reuters - TOKYO (Reuters) - In the suburbs of Tokyo lives Kenichi Ito, the world's fastest man on four legs. For nearly a decade, the 29-year-old Ito, long a fan of simians, has been perfecting a running style based on the wiry Patas monkey of Africa, winning himself a Guinness World Record in the process. "You know, my face and body kind of look like a monkey, so from a young age everybody used to tease me, saying 'monkey, monkey,'" Ito said in his neat apartment, sitting in front of a large poster of a chimpanzee. ... Full Story Top 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

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