Turkmenistan’s President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov yesterday ordered officials to bestow a luxury Cadillac car on a regional government after its farmers delivered a record grain crop.
“In the era of might and happiness, Lebap’s courageous workers put in a big contribution to our country, which is moving ahead with the swiftness of a racehorse,” Mr Berdymukhamedov was quoted as saying by the state newspaper Neutral Turkmenistan.
Mr Berdymukhamedov, who has run the secluded Central Asian country since the death of eccentric dictator Saparmurat Niyazov in 2006, sets the plan for grain harvest which the Lebap province already exceeded this year by harvesting over 350,000 tonnes.
To reward their efforts, he has ordered the awarding of a Cadillac Escalade, a US-made luxury sport utility vehicle not sold in Turkmenistan and extremely rare for the country, where even government officials do not use American cars.
Lobsters freed from restaurant
A German couple on holiday on the Italian island of Sardinia bought live lobsters on the menu at a posh seaside restaurant for €500 and put them back in the sea, local media said yesterday.
“When the woman came into the restaurant, she saw the lobsters straight away,” Giuseppe Demuro, a chef at Mama Latina on Sardinia’s luxurious Emerald Coast, was quoted as saying by the L’Unione Sarda newspaper.
“She came and asked if they were still alive and if she could buy them.”
A waiter then negotiated a €500 price to free the lucky crustaceans.
Tattoo regrets
One in five adults in the UK has a tattoo and, of those, a large proportion are sorry they ever had it done.
Around 45 per cent of those with a tattoo have their first one done between the ages of 18 and 25, with almost a third saying they wish they had not done it, according to the British Association of Dermatologists.
But fewer than half of those who are sorry for their youthful indiscretion plan to have it removed, despite their regrets.
The association is warning those contemplating getting a tattoo to think again.