A Spanish lottery player nearly lost nine million euros in winnings after tossing tickets in the rubbish only to later discover they were winners, Spanish media said yesterday.
Ignacio Gonzalez, a lottery ticket vendor in the country’s northern Basque Country, was stunned to discover on Friday that the number he had played along with 14 friends had come up in a charity draw.
However, Mr Gonzalez’s euphoria quickly turned to despair when he could not find the winning tickets.
After a desperate search at home and with hope running out, he ran out to his neighbourhood rubbish bin. Mixed in with the rubbish, Mr Gonzalez finally found the winning tickets, allowing him and his friends to collect a little more than €600,000 each in winnings.
After the close call, Mr Gonzalez admitted that he feared his friends would have “crucified” him if he had lost the tickets for good. (AFP)
Pop star, 66, delivers own first baby
A French pop star at age 66 delivered his first child unaided when his 27-year-old partner went into labour at their US home in the middle of the night, he said on French radio yesterday.
Michel Polnareff, a singer noted for his striking curly mop of blond hair and big white sunglasses, stepped in as emergency midwife for Danyellah, the mother of his first child, at their home in Los Angeles on December 28.
“I found myself in the position of having to deliver my son. I had no choice. The midwife was late,” he said. The couple had planned for the child to be born at home.
“One thing I knew was that the baby’s neck is very fragile and I absolutely had to support the head. I rushed to put my hand under his head. It was such a beautiful and unexpected moment.” (AFP)
Python newlyweds draw crowds
Hundreds of Cambodians yesterday celebrated an unusual wedding ceremony – for a pair of pythons – who they believe will bring good luck to their villages.
The marriage of serpent bride Chamreun to groom Krong Pich was held in Village One in Kandal province, about 20 kilometres south of the capital Phnom Penh, and attracted nearly 1,000 people.
“We organised the wedding ceremony for the pythons in order to oust bad things and bring good luck and happiness for our villages,” said 41-year-old Neth Vy, Chamreun’s owner.
Cambodians are highly superstitious, particularly in the countryside where people continue to merge animist practices with Buddhism. (AFP)
‘Donald Duck groping’ case against Disney
A woman who claims Donald Duck groped her at Disney’s Epcot theme park in Florida will have her day in court. A federal judge in Philadelphia says Disney must defend April Magolon’s post-traumatic stress lawsuit.
The 27-year-old Pennsylvania woman claims she was holding her child at the Walt Disney World park when a staff member dressed as Donald Duck grabbed her breast and then joked about it.
Ms Magolon says the May 2008 encounter left her with nightmares, digestive problems and other permanent injuries. (AP)
Life stinks but goes on
A New York man trying to call it quits won a new lease on life after his nine-floor plunge ended atop a heap of garbage bags, news reports said yesterday.
The suicidal Manhattan resident jumped from a window on Sunday, the Daily News and New York Post reported. But he survived when his fall was broken by one of many piles of uncollected black rubbish bags littering New York’s sidewalks in the aftermath of a blizzard last week.
The man was taken to hospital in critical condition. (AFP)
Taiwan dog-eaters face $3,000 fine
Five Taiwanese men are facing a fine of more than $3,000 each for killing and eating two dogs in what an official said was the first such case in a decade in the Taipei area.
The five, all aged in their 50s or older, were caught slaughtering the dogs in Yingke, outside Taipei, in May and were subsequently investigated for allegedly abusing the two animals. (AFP)