Engineers in northern Greece yesterday began a costly operation to move a 12th-century Byzantine monastery that occupies land earmarked for a hydroelectric dam, an AFP photographer said.
The state-run Public Power Corporation is spending €850,000 on the project near the city of Grevena to drag the 260-tonne building to higher ground before an artificial lake floods the area.
Sliding on a 50-tonne track platform equipped with hyd-raulic pistons, the monastery is to be moved some 120 metres from its current location including 27 metres uphill, according to organisers.
The uninhabited stone mon-astery dedicated to the Holy Virgin of Tornikio contains valuable murals dated to the 15th and 18th centuries.
It was badly damaged in a 1995 earthquake but underwent repairs a decade ago. The Ilarion hydroelectric project is expected to generate 413 gigawatt hours annually and meet the water supply and irrigation needs of Thessaloniki and outlying agricultural areas. (AFP)
Revenge blaze
After a friend was stung by a bee, a man in the US state of Washington decided to get revenge by setting fire to a hive.
Fire chiefs say a homeowner doused a beehive in a tree with petrol and ignited it, causing a blast that was heard throughout Lyden, a few miles south of the Canadian border.
Fire chief Gary Baar said the fire caused a large “whoosh”, singed the tree and killed the bees, adding: “The correct way to do that is to call a beekeeper.” (PA)
Hot stuff
A product said to be the world’s hottest chilli extract has gone on sale at a London department store.
Heartburn measures a whopping 13 million units on the Scoville scale on which jalapeno peppers rate 3,500 to 8,000 units.
Selfridges said production is now banned in many countries and it believes the six bottles on its shelves are the last available to buy anywhere in the world. (PA)
Burka thief
German police yesterday said they were looking for a criminal who robbed an amusement arcade overnight, dressed in a burka.
Sporting the full body cloak worn by some Muslim women, the criminal, armed with a pistol, held up the arcade in the small town of Ratingen, in the west of the country.
The gangster walked over to a woman employee working at the cash desk and, handing over a paper bag, simply said: “money, money, money”.
The employee was then locked up for an hour in the lavatory.
Police said the criminal was about 1.60 metres tall, but did not know if they were looking for a man or a woman as the employee could not properly identify her attacker’s voice. (AFP)
Key control
Parents will be able to “control” their children’s driving under a new hi-tech system to be introduced by the UK’s biggest-selling car company, Ford. The MyKey system allows car owners to programme a special key that can limit a vehicle’s top speed and ensures seatbelts are being worn. Already a success in the US, the system will be introduced in Europe by Ford next year. (PA)
Burglars spotted
A man taking his first plane ride spotted two men burgling his home.
Steven Lynn was flying over his home in Arkansas and spotted the two men taking items from his house and loading them into a truck. He was able to direct police to the men, who were arrested as they fled with the contents of Mr Lynn’s home. (PA)
Unusual artist
A gorilla is selling his artwork on eBay. N’Dowe, a critically-endangered lowland gorilla, was given art materials to see how he would react.
Now, the seven-year-old’s masterpieces are being sold by Paignton Zoo in Devon to raise money for international ape conservation. (PA)
Koran mistakes
Iranian publishers have noticed cost-saving plans to print Korans in China are yielding embarrassing results: a slew of typos.
The head of Iran’s Koran oversight office says some of the Chinese-printed versions of Islam’s holy book are littered with spelling errors.
Ahmad Haji-Sharif warned consumers that lower-cost Korans may have mistakes in the holy verses. He noted earlier this week that Iranian-produced Korans carry a higher price but have passed a careful inspection for any flaws. (PA)