An American vicar in Germany who offers bankers a chance to direct their financial crisis-related prayers to the heavens above said yesterday he had been inundated with requests for help in these troubled times.
Jeffrey Myers, a former banker himself, said the global market turmoil was leading a surprisingly large number of stockbrokers, bank managers and investors to visit his church, the Nikolaikirche, near Frankfurt's financial district.
The bankers are invited to write their worries on pieces of paper and drop them into a suggestion box. Rev. Myers then reads them out and prays for the people who submit them.
"It was my idea to do this, but I always say that all good ideas come from above," he said, adding that the idea had been met with great enthusiasm and that more than 50 people have already posted their prayers since the end of last week.
The vicar said he had seen a number of bankers coming into his church during their lunch breaks for reflection and prayer.
Too many Chinese cooks spoil broth
Some 170 wedding banquet guests were rushed to hospital in China when powdered rust remover was added to the pot instead of salt after they all decided it needed added flavour, Chinese media said yesterday. In a bizarre coincidence, 61 wedding guests were taken to hospital with similar symptoms a day earlier after a duck-and-donkey-meat banquet in northwest China.
In the rust remover case, the guests at a wedding banquet in Hebei province on Friday felt that the taste of the food - which was all stewed in a big pot - was too bland. Someone added what he or she thought was salt - several times. An hour later, the guests were being rushed to hospital, vomiting, suffering from stomach pains and diarrhoea.
A day earlier, 61 wedding guests suffered food poisoning at a banquet in Gansu province where duck, donkey meat, chicken and shrimp were the main dishes.
"No one has died," Xinhua news agency quoted an official as saying.
Turn your MP3 players down!
Millions of youngsters across Europe could suffer permanent hearing loss after five years if they listen to MP3 players at too high a volume for more than five hours a week, EU scientists warned yesterday.
The scientists' study, requested by the European Commission, attacked the concept of "leisure noise", saying children and teenagers should be protected from increasingly high sound levels - with loud mobile phones also coming in for criticism.
Commission experts estimate that between 50 and 100 million people listen to portable music players on a daily basis.
If they listened for only five hours a week at more than 89 decibels, they would already exceed EU limits for noise allowed in the workplace, they said. But if they listened for longer periods, they risked permanent hearing loss after five years.
106-year-old nun shocked by fame
A 106-year-old American nun who became a minor celebrity after she appeared on TV saying she is voting for Barack Obama is "startled and a bit anguished" by all the attention she is getting.
Sister Cecilia Gaudette, born on March 25, 1902, has decided to step out of the limelight and back into the comfortable obscurity that characterised her life before the media discovered that she will be one of the oldest Americans to vote.
"Sister Cecilia is tired, she is startled and she is even a bit anguished by all the attention," a deputy superior general at the convent in Rome where the voting nun lives, said, adding,"Now she wants to be left alone".
After Sister Gaudette appeared on CBS News in the US and on BBC radio saying she was voting for the first time since 1952 and that it would be for Mr Obama, the convent was besieged by calls from reporters and media outlets across the world.
Apes make war and love
Despite their reputation as lovers not fighters of the primate world, bonobos actually hunt and eat other great apes, German researchers said yesterday.
Their findings, the first direct evidence of hunting by the so-called "hippie" apes, show that such behaviour is not linked to male dominance as females rule bonobo society and also go on hunts.
Bonobos, chimpanzees and orangutans, collectively known as the great apes, are the closest genetic relatives to humans and scientists study their behaviour to learn more about our own evolution.
The apes are generally considered more peaceful than their close cousins, the chimps, and have a reputation for free-loving ways because sex plays a major role their society, being used for greetings, conflict resolution and reconciliation.
Scientists had thought bonobos, found in the lowland forest south of the river Congo, only ate small animals such as squirrels, forest antelopes and rodents. But after observing a group of bonobos the researchers recorded about 10 instances when a group of the apes set out on hunting trips in search of chimpanzees.
Polish minister begs to avoid EU summit
Poland's foreign minister pleaded with President Lech Kaczynski "on bended knee" yesterday not to attend this week's EU summit, saying someone with more financial expertise was needed for the economic talks.
Mr Kaczynski, a conservative euro sceptic, often tussles with Prime Minister Donald Tusk's centre-right, pro-EU government, most recently over who should represent Poland at the October 15-16 summit in Brussels.
"On bended knee, I beg you Mr President, don't go... Don't weaken our negotiating position at this important summit," Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said in a radio interview.