Saturday, November 21st, 2009

Odd News

  • Diplomats arrested for cigarette smuggling

    STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Swedish police have arrested two North Korean diplomats on suspicion of smuggling 230,000 cigarettes into the Nordic country, the Swedish Customs Office said Friday.

    November 21, 2009, 5:04 am
  • Ageing Santa gets $100,000 facelift for Christmas

    WELLINGTON (Reuters) - A Santa in New Zealand with a droopy eye has received a NZ$100,000 ($74,000) face-lift in the run-up to Christmas so that his aging face does not scare children.

    November 21, 2009, 5:04 am
  • Gang accused of killing to sell human fat

    LIMA (Reuters) - Peruvian police said on Thursday they had broken up a gang that allegedly killed dozens of people and sold their fat to buyers who used it to make cosmetics.

    November 21, 2009, 5:03 am
  • New EU president wins fans in Japan -- as a poet

    BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Herman Van Rompuy, the European Union's new president, may not be very well known around the world but he's already winning fans in Japan -- as a poet rather than a politician.

    November 21, 2009, 4:43 am
  • New fossils reveal a world full of crocodiles

    WASHINGTON (Reuters) - New fossils unearthed in what is now the Sahara desert reveal a once-swampy world

    November 20, 2009, 10:21 am
  • U.S. election, iPhone among decade's top 10 Internet moments

    NEW YORK (Reuters) - The launch of Wikipedia, emergence of the iPhone and the election of U.S. President Barack Obama were among the 10 most influential moments on the Internet in the past decade, according to the annual Webby awards.

    November 20, 2009, 10:20 am
  • All Blacks face dressing down over Twitter leak

    WELLINGTON (Reuters) - Neemia Tialata and Cory Jane can expect a talking to from All Blacks coach Graham Henry after revealing on the social networking site Twitter they had been left out of the New Zealand to play England this weekend.

    November 20, 2009, 12:47 am
  • Obama gets five minutes with half-brother in China

    BEIJING (Reuters) - President Barack Obama took time out of his busy diplomatic schedule in China to meet with his half-brother, who lives in the southern part of the country -- but only for five minutes.

    November 19, 2009, 8:09 am
  • Lost man drives nine hours to get newspaper

    CANBERRA (Reuters) - An elderly man who went out to fetch a morning newspaper ended up driving nearly 400 miles after getting lost and taking a wrong turn onto a major Australian highway, police said on Wednesday.

    November 19, 2009, 6:56 am
  • Lawmaker apologizes for insulting rival on Twitter

    OTTAWA (Reuters) - A Canadian member of Parliament learned the hard way on Tuesday that insulting a rival legislator by Twitter is not a good idea, especially if you're sitting around the same table at the time.

    November 19, 2009, 6:52 am
  • Johnny Depp named People's "sexiest man alive"

    NEW YORK (Reuters) - "Pirates of the Caribbean" star Johnny Depp was named People magazine's "Sexiest Man Alive" on Wednesday, reclaiming a title he first won in 2003.

    November 19, 2009, 6:24 am
  • U.S. residents fight for the right to hang laundry

    PERKASIE, Pennsylvania (Reuters) - Carin Froehlich pegs her laundry to three clotheslines strung between trees outside her 18th-century farmhouse, knowing that her actions annoy local officials who have asked her to stop.

    November 19, 2009, 2:03 am
  • Make toilets cool to fix sanitation woes?

    MUMBAI (Reuters) - Jack Sim, founder of the World Toilet Organization, has a theory about why governments and people are so reluctant to talk about hygiene: it isn't cool.

    November 18, 2009, 6:49 am
  • What's in a name? More than you might think

    LONDON (Reuters) - A London-based translation firm is offering parents-to-be the chance to check the meaning of prospective baby names in other languages to avoid inadvertently causing their offspring future embarrassment.

    November 18, 2009, 6:48 am
  • Trapped thief drops trousers in bungled burglary

    LISBON (Reuters) - He wiggled, jiggled and even dropped his trousers, but a thief trying to break into a supermarket in Portugal stayed stuck fast in a tiny window until he was rescued by police and the fire brigade.

    November 18, 2009, 6:37 am
  • Make toilets cool to fix sanitation woes, expert says

    MUMBAI (Reuters) - Jack Sim, founder of the World Toilet Organization, has a theory about why governments and people are so reluctant to talk about hygiene: it isn't cool.

    November 18, 2009, 6:36 am
  • What's in an unusual name? More than you might think

    LONDON (Reuters) - Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes might have thought twice about naming their daughter Suri if they'd known that it means "pickpocket" in Japanese, "turned sour" in French, and "horse mackerels" in Italian.

    November 18, 2009, 6:31 am
  • Japan's marathon queen Takahashi to run veggie farm

    TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's former Olympic marathon gold medallist Naoko Takahashi has decided to become a vegetable farmer.

    November 18, 2009, 3:43 am
  • Japan ask 2010 hosts South Africa to ban vuvuzela

    TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's football chief has joined in the chorus of protestors wanting the noisy vuvuzela trumpet to be banned from next year's World Cup in South Africa.

    November 17, 2009, 7:56 pm

News Poll

Do you think politicians should be more responsive to public opinion?

Do you think politicians should be more responsive to public opinion?

Vote now

Opinion

  • Amy Williams

    October 23, 2009, 12:49 pm
    Public-art players and pantsless plonkers

    As the long weekend beckons, it's time to take a light-hearted look at some of this week's quirkier news...

  • Ed's View

    November 11, 2009, 11:34 am
    Is Hone Harawira a racist?

    The Oxford Dictionary defines racism as "1. Belief in the superiority of a particular race; prejudice based on this. 2. Antagonism towards people of other races."Since his expletive laced email tirade Hone Harawira has been called many...

  • Ellie Evans

    November 20, 2009, 5:47 pm
    The most shocking of tales

    Several stories this week merit a special mention in my mind-boggling news blog, but this first one will take some beating. Or shocking.A police officer called to a house in an small Arkansas town saw fit to use his Taser on the house's unruly...

Yahoo!Xtra News Preferences

Close

Select your region to see news and weather for your area.