Odd News
Lourdes shrine evacuated after flash floods
A sacred site for Roman Catholics, the Lourdes shrine has been closed to the public as floodwaters rise. The site attracts nearly six million visitors annually.
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Rare 'Harry Potter' first edition fetches record auction price
A unique first edition of "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" annotated by author J.K. Rowling has sold for a record 150,000 poundsat a London charity auction, Sotheby's said. The 1997 book, featuring handwritten notes, 22 original...
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Businessman pays €310,000 for racing pigeon
A Chinese businessman has paid a world record 310,000 euros for a Belgian pigeon, highlighting Asia's huge and growing interest in racing birds. The one-year-old award-winning pigeon named Bolt was bred by Belgian pigeon fancier Leo Heremans, a...
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Russian, Azerbajan foreign ministers to meet over Eurovision
Russia is investigating alleged vote theft at the Eurovision Song Contest. Foreign minister Sergey Lavrov is meeting his counterpart from Azerbaijan, a former Soviet republic which is trying to find out why its announced votes did not give any...
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Lithuania media claims Eurovision vote fraud
Lithuanian media is claiming fraud orchestrated by Azerbaijan to take a top spot in the Eurovision Song Contest. A news agency said it had videotaped a meeting where two Russian-speaking men offered money to Lithuanians for their votes in favour of...
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Azerbaijan launches Eurovision inquiry
Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev has ordered an inquiry into why his country gave Russia "nul points" at Saturday's Eurovision Song Contest, the BBC reported. Voters and the official Azerbaijan jury in fact gave strong backing to the Russian...
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Germans blame euro crisis for Eurovision failure
Germans have lamented their unexpectedly poor showing at the Eurovision Song Contest by blaming Chancellor Angela Merkel's tough stance in the euro zone crisis for their failure to win any points from 34 of the 39 countries that voted. Denmark's...
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Don't wear socks, hot Pakistanis told amid power crisis
Pakistan has told civil servants not to wear socks as the country turns off air-conditioners amid a chronic power crisis and soaring temperatures. The government has turned off all air-conditioning in its offices as the country endures blackouts of...
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Hot air balloons collide, one person killed
A Brazilian man died when a hot air balloon flying over Cappadocia, a tourist destination in central Turkey, collided with another balloon this morning. Another 24 people were injured, the Anatolia news agency said. Most of the injured arebeing...
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Dozy drivers
More than three million British drivers have fallen asleep behind the wheel in the last year, according to new research. Almost one in 10 (3.4 million) of the UK's more than 38 million motorists "nodded off" while driving, a survey for LV= car...
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Winning ticket for $590.5 million Powerball lottery sold in Florida
A single winning ticket for a record U.S. Powerball lottery jackpot worth $590.5 million was sold in Florida, organizers said last night, but there was no immediate word about who won or where in the state the ticket was bought. The winning numbers...
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Beatles' guitar auctioned to the tune of $408,000
A custom-made electric guitar played by the late John Lennon and George Harrison of the Beatles sold at a New York auction yesterday for $408,000. The semi-hollow-body guitar, manufactured by the VOX company, was sold to an unidentified U.S. buyer...
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EU finds time to tell restaurants how to serve olive oil
Critics ridiculed European Union bureaucrats today for taking time off fighting the euro zone's debt crisis to impose strict new rules on how restaurants serve olive oil. From Jan. 1, 2014, eateries will be banned from serving oil to diners in...
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In brief
TAKEAWAY JUSTICE A US woman whose car was stolen from her apartment complex spotted the missing SUV hours later - in the drive-through of the McDonald's restaurant where she works. Virginia Maiden called police and officers arrested the driver, a...
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Bieber gives up on his monkey
Teenage pop star Justin Bieber appears to have given up on his pet monkey which was seized by German customs officials in March, according to the shelter looking after "Mally". The 19-year-old singer had until yesterday to hand in the necessary...
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KFC smugglers deliver fast food the hard way
KFC meals are being ordered from Egypt and delivered via smuggling tunnels to the besieged Gaza Strip. Lily Grimes reports.
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Truck driver survives 20-metre fall in bridge incident
A truck driver is in a critical condition after falling 20 metres from his truck after it crashed and almost tumbled off a busy freeway in Melbourne.
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Bieber must pay for monkey business
Pop star Justin Bieber will have to pay the bill for his monkey's two month stay at a Munich animal shelter. The cost of care, food and vet visits for capuchin monkey Mally is several thousand euros, a spokesman for Munich's customs office...
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Stroller falls on rail tracks, baby saved
A woman accidentally let her baby stroller roll onto the tracks at a train station in Philadelphia on Wednesday. Security camera footage showed the woman standing on the platform with her 14-month-old daughter in a stroller. The stroller then...
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Aussie minister floored by kangaroo
An Australian politician taking his morning jog in the capital Canberra has come off second best after crossing a kangaroo. Shane Rattenbury, was only seconds away from a collision as he pounded the pavement when he saw the eastern grey kangaroo at...
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Ancient pyramid destroyed for gravel
A road construction crew in Belize has destroyed one of the country's largest ancient Mayan pyramids in order to extract materials for road fill, archaeologists in the Central American country reported. According to local media, the sloping sides of...
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