Weird and Wacky

Total news: 1327
Last news: August 29, 2008 16:52:39

CHUR, Switzerland (Reuters) - Diamonds really are forever. Algordanza, a small company based in the mountainous southeast of Switzerland, uses the ashes of dead people to make diamonds as a permanent memento for their nearest and dearest.

LIMA (Reuters) - Dog lovers beware. A neighborhood in Perus capital, Lima, has passed a law prohibiting families living in apartments from having more than one dog. People living in houses are allowed two dogs, while those found with more will be subject to hefty fines.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - The brains of flies are wired to avoid the swatter, U.S. researchers said on Thursday.

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Shanghai police will post photos and videos of jaywalkers in newspapers and on TV in a bid to shame them out of breaking traffic rules, local media reported on Thursday.

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The Vatican has warned journalists who will travel with Pope Benedict to Lourdes next month not to put the revered water from the shrine in their hand luggage on the papal plane or it may be confiscated.

BEDUM, Netherlands (Reuters) - The Tower of Pisa is being challenged by a lesser-known 12th-century building in the northern Dutch town of Bedum as Europes most steeply leaning tower.

ROME (Reuters) - An Italian museum Thursday defied Pope Benedict and refused to remove a modern art sculpture portraying a crucified green frog holding a beer mug and an egg that the Vatican had condemned as blasphemous.

NAPLES (Reuters) - "Pizzaioli" or pizza chefs in Naples, birthplace of the Margherita, handed out free pizzas on Wednesday in protest at high prices charged by rivals who, they say, use the spike in commodity prices to rip off consumers.

PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - The price of rat meat has quadrupled in Cambodia this year as inflation has put other meat beyond the reach of poor people, officials said on Wednesday.

ROME (Reuters) - The head of one of Venices most prestigious museums apologized on Wednesday to a Muslim woman asked to leave the building by a guard because she was wearing a veil over her face.

SYDNEY (Reuters Life!) - An Australian school which recently banned its students from doing cartwheels, somersaults and other gymnastics during recess is reviewing the decision after parents and students got all bent out of shape.

NAPLES (Reuters) - "Pizzaioli" or pizza chefs in Naples, birthplace of the Margherita, handed out free pizzas on Wednesday in protest at high prices charged by rivals who, they say, use the spike in commodity prices to rip off consumers.

BERLIN (Reuters) - A four-year-old cat in Germany called Bonny has survived after being walled in beneath a bathtub for seven weeks, its owner said Tuesday.

ROME (Reuters) - An Italian priest who had planned an online "pageant" for nuns has suspended the project, saying he was misinterpreted and had no intention of putting sisters on a beauty catwalk.

HELSINKI (Reuters) - They carry their wives, sit on ants, throw milking stools, boots and mobile phones -- here in the home of weird world championships, participants will do just about anything to win their offbeat crowns.

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Koreas top male and female archers capped gold medal performances at the Beijing Olympics by announcing wedding plans just as the games ended, an archery official said on Tuesday.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Grazing cattle and sleeping deer tend to align their bodies along the North-South axis of the Earths magnetic field, European researchers said on Monday, giving new meaning to the phrase animal magnetism.

TOKYO (Reuters) - The Japanese government will have to pay damages to the parents of a sailor who hanged himself after being repeatedly insulted by his superior, in the first such court ruling involving a civil servant, media said.

NICOSIA (Reuters) - Cypruss popular holiday resort of Ayia Napa has introduced the islands first legal beach exclusively for animals after complaints it was becoming a dogs life for mans best friend.

BERLIN (Reuters) - Three vast tunnels were opened under central Berlin this month, giving a glimpse of Adolf Hitlers megalomaniac vision of a new architectural centre for the capital of Nazi Germany.