Following is a summary of current odd news briefs.
Venezuelan tribe angry at ”sacred” stone in Berlin
BERLIN (Reuters) – Wolfgang von Schwarzenfeld’s sculptures
in a Berlin park were meant to promote world peace, but the
79-year-old German now finds himself at war with a Venezuelan
tribe which accuses him of stealing a sacred pink stone known
to them as ”Grandmother.” The Venezuelan government is
championing the Pemon Indians of the ”Gran Sabana” region by
demanding the return of the polished stone from Berlin’s
Tiergarten park – putting the German government in something of
a dilemma.
Fed-up Lebanese protest against protests
BEIRUT (Reuters) – If you can’t beat them, join them.
Dozens of Lebanese, exasperated by rampant tire-burning
protests across the country, rolled out tires and stopped
traffic in the capital Beirut on Thursday.
Brazilian club asks fans to give blood
SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Brazilian football club Vitoria has
removed its trademark red hoops from its shirt and told
supporters it will add the color back gradually as fans donate
blood. The campaign, entitled ”My Blood is Red and Black,” is
named after the club’s traditional colors and comes amid a
nationwide drive to get more Brazilians to give blood for
transfusions.
Korean shamanism finds new life in modern era
INCHEON, SOUTH KOREA (Reuters) – Colorful flags snapped in
the sea breeze as more than a dozen Korean shamans, dressed in
bright colors, danced and chanted prayers in front of a huge
cow’s head stuck to a trident. The ceremony on a ship was
designed to exorcise demons that threaten fishermen and bring
good luck to everybody on board. The presence of several
hundred spectators underlined how the ages-old trance rituals
were going strong again, having been shunned as recently as 30
years ago.
Wandering Cape Cod bear captured in Boston suburb
BOSTON (Reuters) – He’s baaack: A male black bear captured
on Cape Cod earlier this month, where it was tranquilized and
moved to central Massachusetts, showed up again on Tuesday just
six miles from downtown Boston. State officials said they had
captured the bear in a tree in the Chestnut Hill area of
Brookline, just west of Boston, and confirmed it was the same
bear which roamed the Cape for about two weeks before being
captured and relocated on June 12.
Reading offers Brazilian prisoners quicker escape
BRASILIA (Reuters) – Brazil will offer inmates in its
crowded federal penitentiary system a novel way to shorten
their sentences: four days less for every book they read.
Inmates in four federal prisons holding some of Brazil’s most
notorious criminals will be able to read up to 12 works of
literature, philosophy, science or classics to trim a maximum
48 days off their sentence each year, the government announced.
Spaniards stomp their heels at bailed-out bankers
MADRID (Reuters) – A flamenco troupe bursts into a bank
branch in Seville in southern Spain, lampooning bankers in
dance and song. Further north, in Galicia, 50 men dressed in
prison garb march into a bank shouting slogans against costly
state bailouts for lenders. In Barcelona and Madrid, a growing
organization of elderly protesters stage regular ”occupations”
of bank branches, wearing reflective vests and carrying signs
decrying the bailouts.
Pakistan cracks down on pot-bellied police
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Pakistan is cracking down on portly
policemen after only a quarter of the 19,000 officers in the
Punjab province passed a fitness test. Policemen in the South
Asian nation are widely seen as corrupt and ineffective. Now
their weight is coming under the spotlight as well.
Zimbabwe MPs surrender to scalpel in AIDS fight
HARARE (Reuters) – Forty-four members of Zimbabwe’s
parliament were circumcised on Friday as part of a national
HIV/AIDS awareness campaign. In a rare show of political unity,
the MPs from President Robert Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party and Prime
Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s rival MDC camp chatted calmly with
reporters as they queued at a clinic set up inside the
parliament complex.
Breast cancer survivor wins right to swim topless in
Seattle
SEATTLE (Reuters) – A woman who survived a double
mastectomy and says wearing a bathing suit covering her chest
causes searing pain has won a battle to swim topless at
Seattle’s public pools. Jodi Jaecks, a 47-year-old fitness buff
who had surgery to remove both breasts last year to treat
cancer, was initially denied permission this year to swim
topless by staff at Seattle’s Medgar Evers pool.
