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Senegal
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08 Jan (TBA) Senegal row over nude statue
The architect of a huge statue (pictured) being built in Senegal has suggested he needs to cover the legs of the bare-breasted female figure to overcome a row over nudity.
The $27m (£17m) monument, which will be bigger than the Statue of Liberty has apparently upset religious leaders in the mainly Muslim nation, with imams saying it was idolatrous and a waste of money.
Architect Pierre Goudiaby Atepa told journalists in the capital, Dakar, tha... |
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Malaysia
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14 Sep (TBA) It's never too late to tie the knot…at 107
A 107-year-old Malaysian woman is contemplating getting married for the 23rd time, as she fears her current husband wants to leave her.
Reports in Malaysia say Wook Kundor (pictured) married a man 70 years her junior, four years ago. But now she fears her 37 year old husband will not return home after completing treatment for drug addiction in Kuala Lumpur.
Wook, who lives in the northern Kuala Terengganu state, told reporters sh... |
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Indonesia
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21 Jan Obama look-alike becomes a celebrity
Ilham Anas, (pictured left) an Indonesian photographer is cashing in on his uncanny resemblance to new US President, Barack Obama (pictured right).
Reports in Indonesia say Anas (34) is now in great demand and increasingly becoming a celebrity in Jakarta, where Obama once lived. He has appeared on Indonesia's premier TV talk show, done an advertisement as Obama, and received other marketing offers from companies in the region.
The real Barack... |
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USA driver
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| 15 Jan Six-year-old drives car
A six-year-old boy in the US state of Virginia drove alone for 16 kilometres to school before losing control and crashing.
Police said the boy who had missed his school bus had only suffered minor injuries in the accident on Monday.
The boy took the keys to a 2005 Ford Taurus early on Monday while his mother was sleeping, and drove, possibly standing up, "during our busiest time of the day, when all the school buses are going, passing two or three cars at... |
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Nigeria helmet
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07 Jan Have pumpkin shell helmet, will ride
Nigerians have a reputation for being innovative but motorcyclists in the West African country have proved to be particularly so, by wearing dried pumpkin shells on their heads to dodge new laws forcing them to wear helmets.
According to authorities in the northern city of Kano several motorists have been stopped wearing what turned out to be "improvised helmets", made of dried pumpkin shells.
Road safety officials said calabash-wearers would... |
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WEDDING BELLS
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16 Dec Zuma’s daughter to marry Prof Ncube’s son
The stage is set for a future quiz question: What does Zimbabwe’s politician Professor Welshman Ncube have in common with Jacob Zuma the President of South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC)?
Answer: Their children are married; or rather are due to be married this Saturday in Pretoria.
Reports in South Africa and Zimbabwe say wedding invitations for Wesley Bongani Ncube, (25) and Gugulethu Zuma have gone out to about 200 gue... |
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USA Presidents
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18 Nov Barack Obama ‘may not be the first black USA President’
Sen. Barack Obama (pictured) may the sixth, not the first black man to occupy the oval office when he is sworn in next NJanuary, according to three black historians whose work to uncover the racial backgrounds of U.S. presidents has been largely ignored until now.
Black male historians have written extensively that Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge and Dwight Eisenhower had... |
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Nigeria court
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18 Oct Nigerian man imprisoned for idleness
A 20-year-old Nigerian man, Jamilu Samaila, has been sentenced to six months in jail and 30 strokes of the cane for idleness, by an Islamic court - in a case brought by his own father.
Jamilu's father, Samaila Tahir, told the court in northern Bauchi state, that his son had refused to go to school or to find a job and had joined a delinquent gang.
Tahir said his son was "bringing shame on the family," and that he no longer listened to him.
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Tanzania
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| 02 Oct Tanzania disco stampede claims 19 lives
NINETEEN teenagers died during a stampede at a disco in central Tanzania on Wednesday night, according to the police.
Those who died were said to be aged between 12 and 17. Eyewitnesses said the stampede in the Tabora region, about 750km (470 miles) north-west of the commercial capital, Dar es Salaam, was caused by a commotion in the disco.
The event was organised as part of the Eid al-Fitr festivities that mark the end of the Muslim hol... |
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South Africa
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23 Sept SA family wiped out by traditional medicine
Thirteen members of the same family have died in South Africa after apparently ingesting poison prepared by a trainee traditional herbalist.
Reports said the trainee healer was part the Mazubane family whose bodies were discovered at their home in Dingleton, KwaZulu Natal. It is believed the healer may have administered poison by mistake.
The deceased include three generations of the Mazubane family, including a two-week-old baby and f... |
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Brazil
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28 June Of ingenious prisoner and pegions
A Brazilian prisoner allowed to keep pegions in his cell came up with a full proof plan of evading security to bring in supplies of drugs and cell phones – he used his feathered friends!
Reports in Brazil said prison security officials were baffled by how inmates seemed to be having easy access to drugs and mobile phones, even though security checks were very tight.
It wasn’t until a sharp eyed prison guard noticed that pigeons seemed to be havi... |
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Mexico
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21 May Mexico jails donkey for assault and battery
A donkey was locked up at the local jail of the Chiapas state in Mexico for public drunkenness and other disturbances after it bit and kicked two men near a ranch, police said.
Officer Sinar Gomez said the donkey would remain behind bars until its owner agreed to pay the men's medical bills. "Around here, if someone commits a crime they are jailed," Gomez said, "no matter who they are."
The owner of the donkey, Mauro Gutierrez, said ... |
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Austria
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| 27 Apr ‘Austrian man kept daughter in cellar for 24 years’
Reports in Austria said police are investigating claims that a man held his daughter captive in a cellar for 24 years and may have fathered seven children by her.
Detectives say the woman, identified only as Elizabeth F, had been missing since August 29, 1984.
Now aged 42, Elizabeth was apparently found after a tip-off to police. Her 73-year-old father, Josef F, is being held in custody. The case came to light after one of the c... |
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Farm tools
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03 Apr Half a tool each for divorced couple
A Serb farmer angered by a court ruling concerning his divorce; that he must share all his property with his wife, has used a grinding machine to cut in half all his farm tools and machines, according to local media reports.
A report in the Belgrade daily Kurir said the farmer named Branko Zivkov (76) had been prepared to give his wife, Vukadinka, her equal share of everything earned during their 45-year marriage, but was furious at being asked... |
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Prickly rose
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04 Mar Show your love with 124,000 roses
An Iranian man, Shahin, will rue the day he promised to give his wife 124,000 roses as part of her dowry.
According to an Iranian newspaper, E'temad, the woman, identified only as Hengameh, decided to claim her entire dowry of 124,000 red roses after 10 years of marriage to "punish her very stingy husband".
An Iranian court has now ordered that Shahin’s flat should be seized until he produces all of the roses.
The woman said she was claiming th... |
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Boy millionaire
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04 Mar Who isn’t a millionaire in Zimbabwe?
The young boy (pictured) with his millions worth of Zimbabwean dollars ought to be warned that the Zimbabwean government has made it illegal to possess more than Zim$500m in cash - the equivalent of 21 US dollars.
According to a new regulation published last month, anyone found with more than Zim$500m in cash will be guilty of "unlawful hoarding". Judging from the bundles of Z$200,000 the young boy is carrying, his stake is much more than the m... |
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Miracle baby
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| 28 Feb ‘Miracle’ baby survives toilet birth
A 33 year old Indian woman, Bhuri Kalbi, unexpectedly gave birth while relieving herself in a toilet on a moving train in Ahmedabad on Tuesday.
The baby apparently slipped through the toilet hole onto the tracks, but miraculously survived.
Relating her experience to the press, Kalbi, whose baby arrived two months prematurely, said: "My delivery was so sudden. I didn’t even realise that my child had slipped from the hole in the toilet."
Kalbi... |
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Rough justice
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| 27 Feb Woman gives birth while being hanged
A Papua New Guinea woman known as, Nolan Yekum, gave birth prematurely as she struggled to free herself from a hangman's noose, after villagers lynched her and her husband, believing they were involved in sorcery.
Media reports in Papua New Guinea said Nolan and her husband Paul were lynched in the remote village of Kilip in the western highlands two weeks ago, after villagers accused them of using black magic to kill a neighbour.
According t... |
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Divine orders
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| 26 Feb Reverend orders ‘hands off other people’s spouses’
Rev Fr. Kato of St. Agnes Catholic Church in Makindye, Uganda was dismayed when he discovered that none of his faithful worshippers sat next to their wives or husbands during mass.
The priest was preaching on the theme of loving one another and family togetherness in celebration of Christ’s love.
Before he began his sermon, he asked all the couples who were seated together to put their hands up. To his dismay, not a hand went up... |
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