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Monday, April 30, 2012 8:30 PM PDT

Today's Odd News - Reuters News Headlines - Yahoo! News: Bomb-sniffing dogs enlisted to stem Florida python invasion Artist Lucian Freud leaves $156 million in will: paper Merkel's old Volkswagen sold at auction, second time lucky Australia billionaire to launch "unsinkable" Titanic Report of Mexican woman expecting nine babies a hoax Comic campaigns for Italian default, lira: seriously Mexican woman pregnant with nine babies: report Man jailed for smuggling iguana meat into United States HIV-positive man fights charge that saliva was deadly Police arrest 6-year-old who threatens, kicks principal Dutch "burqa ban" may go after government falls Ukraine government's office art swapped for fakes New York woman fired after donating kidney to help boss Virginia woman wins $1 million - twice in same lottery Saudi man spends 15 years in jail on father's order Soccer ball swept up by Japanese tsunami found in Alaska 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 Bomb-sniffing dogs enlisted to stem Florida python invasion Mon,30 Apr 2012 01:58 PM PDT Reuters - ORLANDO (Reuters) - Some bomb-sniffing dogs trained to help fight terrorism are turning their olfactory attention toward a different scourge: Burmese pythons in Florida's Everglades National Park. The dogs are members of "EcoDogs," a three-year-old collaboration at Alabama's Auburn University between the science departments and the school's Canine Detection Research Institute, which trains dogs to detect explosives. "The dogs are really, really good," said Christina Romagosa, a biologist at Auburn. She said in a test of python detection in south Florida, the dogs could cover a search area 2. ... Full Story Top Artist Lucian Freud leaves $156 million in will: paper Mon,30 Apr 2012 12:24 PM PDT Reuters - LONDON (Reuters) - Portrait painter Lucian Freud left a record 96 million pounds ($156 million) in his will, the largest sum bequeathed by a British artist, the Mail on Sunday newspaper reported. Freud died in July last year aged 88, by which time his uncompromising, fleshy portraits had made him one of the world's most revered and coveted artists, whose subjects ranged from England's Queen Elizabeth II to the supermodel Kate Moss. His "Benefits Supervisor Sleeping", a 1995 portrait of an obese woman asleep in the nude on a sofa, fetched $33. ... Full Story Top Merkel's old Volkswagen sold at auction, second time lucky Mon,30 Apr 2012 11:54 AM PDT Reuters - (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel's old Volkswagen wasn't worth the 130,000 euros ($172,100) bogus online bidders kited it to earlier this month, but the first woman chancellor's 1990 Golf finally went to the highest bidder on Monday for 10,165 euros. Successful bidder Dirk Fricke, who bought the car for his company Frisch-Licht, told Reuters he was happy with what he saw as a low price tag, though he wasn't a fan of Merkel's. "We're politically totally neutral," he said by telephone. "It was just about keeping the car in Germany. ... Full Story Top Australia billionaire to launch "unsinkable" Titanic Mon,30 Apr 2012 10:53 AM PDT Reuters - CANBERRA (Reuters) - An Australian billionaire announced plans on Monday to build an "unsinkable" version of the Titanic, 100 years after the original sank after hitting an iceberg. Titanic II is expected to make its maiden voyage from England to North America, the old Titanic route, in late 2016. "It is going to be designed so it won't sink," mining and tourism tycoon Clive Palmer told reporters. "It will be designed as a modern ship with all the technology to ensure that doesn't happen. ... Full Story Top Report of Mexican woman expecting nine babies a hoax Fri,27 Apr 2012 05:04 PM PDT Reuters - MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Reports that a woman in northern Mexico is pregnant with nine babies are a hoax, health authorities said on Friday. Mexico's main broadcaster Televisa and top daily newspapers ran stories about a woman expecting nonuplets late on Thursday after she provided welfare officials with supposed evidence of the multiple pregnancy, including an ultrasound video, said a spokesman for the health ministry of Coahuila state. ... Full Story Top Comic campaigns for Italian default, lira: seriously Fri,27 Apr 2012 01:34 PM PDT Reuters - ROME (Reuters) - An Italian comic who is campaigning for local elections riding a wave of discontent among voters says the solution to the economic crisis is default on the country's enormous debt and a return to the lira. Beppe Grillo isn't joking when he says Italy needs to get out of the euro zone fast and rejuvenate a political system dominated by parties he says are dead. "We need to try get out of the euro zone with as little damage as possible. ... Full Story Top Mexican woman pregnant with nine babies: report Thu,26 Apr 2012 10:18 PM PDT Reuters - MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - A Mexican woman is pregnant with nine babies - six girls and three boys - the country's main broadcaster Televisa reported on Thursday night. The woman was identified as Karla Vanessa Perez of the northeastern state of Coahuila, which borders Texas. She is currently being treated at a hospital in the state capital Saltillo, the broadcaster said in the report. Perez, whose age was not given, had fertility treatment leading to the multiple pregnancy, it said. State-owned news agency Notimex also reported the pregnancy, saying Perez was due to give birth on May 20. ... Full Story Top Man jailed for smuggling iguana meat into United States Thu,26 Apr 2012 05:24 PM PDT Reuters - (Reuters) - A Las Vegas man who tried to sneak 115 oven-ready iguanas into the United States from Mexico has been sentenced to two years in prison for illegally importing the reptiles, authorities said on Thursday. A federal judge ordered Eliodoro Soria Fonseca, 38, to serve 24 months in prison, the U.S. Attorney's office for the Southern District of California said. Fonseca was arrested as he tried to cross into California through the Otay Mesa port of entry, south of San Diego, last June with the iguana meat packed in coolers. ... Full Story Top HIV-positive man fights charge that saliva was deadly Wed,25 Apr 2012 01:52 PM PDT Reuters - ALBANY, New York (Reuters) - A gay-rights group is urging New York state's high court to overturn the conviction of an HIV-positive man whose saliva was found to be a "dangerous instrument" in a biting case. David Plunkett was sentenced in 2007 to 10 years in prison for aggravated assault, a felony that requires the use of a "dangerous instrument." Plunkett argued unsuccessfully the charge could not be sustained because HIV cannot be transmitted through saliva. The Court of Appeals, New York's top court, will hear Plunkett's case on Thursday. ... Full Story Top Police arrest 6-year-old who threatens, kicks principal Wed,25 Apr 2012 12:22 PM PDT Reuters - INDIANAPOLIS (Reuters) - Police in a small Indiana town hauled a six-year-old from his elementary school and charged him with battery and intimidation after he kicked and threatened a principal, police said on Wednesday. The incident followed one earlier in April where police handcuffed a 6-year-old girl who was screaming and crying and had injured a principal and damaged property at an elementary school in Milledgeville, Georgia. She was not charged. ... Full Story Top Dutch "burqa ban" may go after government falls Wed,25 Apr 2012 12:12 PM PDT Reuters - AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - With the collapse of the Dutch centre-right government, the Netherlands may now drop some of its most eye-popping proposals aimed at Muslims and other immigrants and could soften its strong anti-immigration rhetoric. A ban on Muslim face veils, such as the Arabic-style niqabs that leave the eyes uncovered and Afghan-style burqas that cover the face with a cloth grid, is less likely to go ahead after the government collapsed at the weekend. ... Full Story Top Ukraine government's office art swapped for fakes Wed,25 Apr 2012 09:56 AM PDT Reuters - KIEV (Reuters) - Two valuable paintings in the offices of the Ukrainian government have been mysteriously swapped for replicas, the former Soviet republic's Culture Ministry said on Wednesday. The landscape paintings by 20th century Ukrainian artist Mykola Hlushchenko have been on display in the government building since August 2001. "Chemical tests have shown that both paintings are replicas of Hlushchenko's works," the ministry said in a statement. Insurers have valued the paintings at about $144,000 combined. The ministry said the replicas appeared to be 5-10 years old. ... Full Story Top New York woman fired after donating kidney to help boss Tue,24 Apr 2012 03:46 PM PDT Reuters - NEW YORK (Reuters) - A New York woman who donated a kidney so her ailing boss would move up the transplant waiting list says she was fired shortly after the operation, according to a complaint she filed with the New York State Division of Human Rights. Deborah Stevens said her former employer, Atlantic Automotive Group, discriminated against her over disabilities brought about by complications from the surgery, and she plans to sue the company for lost earnings and damages. The company, which runs car dealerships on Long Island, said Stevens's complaint is groundless. ... Full Story Top Virginia woman wins $1 million - twice in same lottery Tue,24 Apr 2012 05:30 AM PDT Reuters - (Reuters) - A Virginia woman found out on April 7 she won $1 million in a lottery drawing. And then she won again. Virginia Fike of Berryville, Virginia, had the good luck to buy not one but two lottery tickets from a truck stop that both turned out to be $1 million winners, matching five of the six Powerball numbers. Lottery officials presented her with a $2 million check on Friday. Fike said she found out that she had won - and won again - while sitting in a hospital room with her mother, according to a statement distributed by the Virginia lottery. ... Full Story Top Saudi man spends 15 years in jail on father's order Mon,23 Apr 2012 09:23 AM PDT Reuters - JEDDAH (Reuters) - A Saudi Arabian man who was jailed for three years in 1997 has spent a further 12 years behind bars waiting for his father to pardon him, a local human rights group has said. Eid al-Sinani, 43, was originally sentenced to three years in prison and 200 lashes for beating up his step mother, Musab al-Zahrani, a researcher at the National Society for Human Rights (NSHR), told Reuters. However, when the sentence had been served the father asked a judge to keep his son in prison "until he is proven to be righteous by his father". ... Full Story Top Soccer ball swept up by Japanese tsunami found in Alaska Sun,22 Apr 2012 06:39 PM PDT Reuters - A soccer ball that bobbed onto the shore of a remote Alaska island is likely the first salvageable debris from last year's Japanese tsunami that could be returned to its owner, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The ball, found on Alaska's Middleton Island, bears writing that identifies its place of origin, said Doug Helton, operations coordinator for NOAA's Office of Response and Restoration, which is tracking debris from the tsunami. ... Full Story Top 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

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