Tag Archives: offbeat

Stockholm, Sweden | AFP | Danish police are investigating the theft of what is claimed to be “the world’s most expensive” bottle of vodka, in what the bar owner says could be an inside job. The bottle, made from white and yellow gold and containing a diamond-encrusted replica of the …

Washington, United States | AFP | It’s the question every good little girl and boy asks on Christmas Eve: When is Santa coming? As it has done every year since 1955, a Canadian and American defense agency is tracking the jolly old man’s path around the globe in his reindeer-powered …

London, United Kingdom | AFP | A non-existent restaurant supposedly based in a garden shed briefly became London’s top eating place on travel and restaurant website TripAdvisor, who on Thursday hit back at the hoaxers. “The Shed at Dulwich”, based in a south London back garden, offered invited guests conceptual …

New Delhi, India | AFP | Indian police arrested a man whose stinky socks caused a showdown on a bus as his fellow passengers protested the pungent odour, an officer said Saturday. The man removed his shoes and socks on a bus going from the Himalayan state of Himachal Pradesh …

London, United Kingdom | AFP | The Archbishop of York, John Sentamu, put on his white cleric’s collar on Sunday for the first time since cutting it up ten years ago in a highly symbolic protest at Robert Mugabe’s rule. The Uganda-born cleric, the second most senior clergyman in the …

Geneva, Switzerland | AFP | If someone tells you they flushed more than a hundred grand down the toilet, chances are they’re referring figuratively to a bad investment, or an outrageous extravagance. But in Switzerland, prosecutors have opened an investigation into why two people literally tried to cram about 100,000 euros …

Disguised Uganda minister Opendi catches corrupt hospital workers Kampala, Uganda | AFP |  Uganda’s State Minister of Health for General Duties disguised herself as a patient and caught two medical workers demanding a bribe for free government services, she told AFP on Saturday. Health State Minister Sarah Opendi said she …

Besançon, France | AFP | Tourists visiting a church in the picturesque French town of Chateau-Chalon were surprised to discover that local pranksters had replaced the fonts’ holy water with alcohol, the local tourism office said Friday. A dozen tourists sniffed out the telltale signs of eau-de-vie, a clear fruit brandy, …

Hong Kong, China | AFP |  A video in which a TV commentator broke down in tears while celebrating Syria’s priceless World Cup qualifying equaliser against Iran has gone viral, racking up more than one million views online. When Omar Al Soma scored in the 93rd minute, earning Syria a …

Sao Paulo, Brazil | AFP |  Brazilian police on Tuesday found suitcases overflowing with millions of dollars worth of cash in an apartment believed to be linked to a former government minister accused of corruption. There was so much money in the apartment in the northeastern city of Salvador, which …