MP’s to Give Tips
No, we’re not talking about leaving a generous ‘thank-you’ after a good meal, or giving small pieces of advice, like, ‘don’t eat yellow snow.’

These MP’s are the male members in the government of Zimbabwe and have been ordered to undergo a circumcision operation.

The reason for this move is actually quite sound, they hope to “lead by example” and try to reduce the rate of people infected by the HIV virus, bearing in mind Zimbabwe has a population where one in seven people are HIV Positive.

The order has come from Thokozani Khupe, the deputy leader of the country, who said, “As leaders in government, we must set an example and this is one of the roots of the problem of AIDS and people must realise the benefits of this small procedure,” he explained.

However, one national newspaper did say that Ministers, when asked about the order, thought that Mr. Khupe was joking.

But, joking he was not and the government are hoping to circumcise 1.2 million men by 2015, so the MP’s had better get used to the idea of life with a little less skin! Especially as medical studies have shown that circumcision can reduce the number of HIV infections by up to 60 percent.

“Our goal is a country where no one dies from HIV or AIDS-related illnesses and we can only achieve that if our leaders start to show some guidance,” said Khupe.

Last June, a study by Unicef and the World Bank indicated that about 2,500 young people contract HIV every day worldwide and that Sub-Saharan Africa is the region most affected.

First Flight Fright
For anybody, that first flight is a bit nerve wracking… but for one man from Arkansas, USA, it got worse.

Taking his first flight in a little Cessna,Steven Lynn was getting quite used to the movement of the aircraft and had even started to take some aerial footage of his local area. The pilot even took him over his house so he could get some spectacular shots from above.

What he saw was not at all pleasing on the eye, as he spied two men loading up a trailer outside his house and realised he was actually witnessing the burglary of his own property.

After a few minutes of useless screaming and shouting, Mr. Lynn remembered his mobile phone and as he watched his household aircon units being loaded up he called a nearby uncle and 911 for the local police.

The burglars made off when they saw the uncle arriving and the pilot used his radio to direct the police in pursuit of the bad guys, both of whom were caught and most of the property recovered.

Mr. Lynn did realise later that he was in fact lucky to be up in the air at the time, “It’s slim to none that you would ever see anything like that happening on the ground… I just wanted to see my house from the air, but to see something like that is a complete mood change,” he explained.

There is no information as to whether Mr. Lynn will be making a habit of flying.

Long Walk Home
When you’re away from home and something rotten happens to you, all you want to do is get home and into familiar surroundings. However, if what happens to you leaves you with no documents and absolutely no money whatsoever, your options are limited. Not so much here in Europe, but if you lived in a remote area on the far eastern side of Russia, and misfortune came to call while you were visiting Moscow, some 9,000 kms away.

Well, a 47-year-old Russian man walked those 9,000 km from Moscow all the way back to his hometown on the Kamchatka Peninsula after he was robbed of money, a local news source reports.

The man’s tale of woe began during a visit to Moscow, with a ‘friend’, in 2010 when the ‘friend’ stole all his documents and money. The man, unsure of what to do next, decided to set out on an epic return journey home to Kamchatka by foot, the Russian Komsomolskaya Pravda tabloid explained.

He continued to head homewards for a total of 400 days, managing to survive by recycling glass bottles and working in  short-term unskilled jobs, including being a porter and building work, the tabloid newspaper said.

When the man eventually reached his home town, the Vladivostok police, in Russia’s Far East, were somewhat bemused when they were confronted by a tramp, whose boots were worn to practically nothing and saying that he wanted to report a robbery that had occurred in Moscow and that he had crossed practically all of Russia to report the incident.

Just as incredible, is that the police not only took his report seriously, but they actually found the robber and returned the man’s belongings and money.

From a rather selfish point of view, if the chap ever needs a job delivering the fantastic new colour Gazette around the whole of the Costa Tropical… he’s hired!

Nude Rugby
Hopefully we can find a suitable photograph to accompany this article and not offend any sensitive minds out there. On a personal level, all I can say is that having looked through the uncensored photographs of this event; I won’t be partaking of sausage with my breakfast for some time to come.

The brief is to write a short article about a game of rugby between the Nude Blacks and a team from Spain called Las Conquistadoras.

The interest shown by the media was mainly due to the fact that the Nude Blacks, as the name implies, play completely naked and is an all male team, whereas Las Conquistadoras from Barcelona are made up entirely of women.

The main points were that the men did indeed play the entire game naked, the ladies remained pretty much clothed and the ladies from Spain won the game and a rather smart trophy.

Other points of note… despite the game taking place at Kettle Park in Dunedin, New Zealand, there were absolutely no sheep involved, the grabbing of any tackle during a tackle was against the rules, all the ladies’ nails had to be trimmed and the hooker on the ladies team was very reasonable.

As a footnote, despite the rumours about our Antipodean friends, it was in fact a Welshman that invented the condom, using a sheep’s bladder, in 1726, the idea was then improved upon by the English who also used a sheep’s bladder to make a condom, but removed the bladder from the sheep first.

Vexed Virgin
Staying with sport, now we are off to Argentina, where the football club called Colón play in the city of Santa Fe and were having trouble with a statue of the Virgin Mary that overlooked their stadium. The problem is, the players are convinced that the statue was bringing the club bad luck.

The effigy of the Virgin of Guadalupe, is highly revered in Latin America, especially in Mexico, but after getting beaten 2-0 by rivals Union, some of the players hired a crane and had the statue removed.

The statue was a gift to the club from the then-coach, a Uruguayan, by the name of Jorge Fosatti, and was placed in front of the stadium in 2002.

Footballers are historically a superstitious lot, but this time they appear to have taken their superstitions a bit too far as one of the directors of the club resigned over the incident, then the public heard what had happened and demanded that the statue be returned.

The club hastily issued a statement saying that the statue had only been removed for restoration and would be re-displayed when the work was complete, although they wouldn’t confirm it would be in the same location.

The pastor of the Basilica of Guadalupe, Olidio Panigo, said the decision of the club came “after the reaction of the people.” He also said that he and the people were now concerned that the club or players may “tamper with the image.”

The obvious moral of the story is that, no matter how talented and rich you are, you shouldn’t sod around with effigies of the Virgin in a country where 91% of the population define themselves as Catholic.

Lucky Ducky
In a previous life I was required to go to a duck farm and collect a hundred or so dead duck and drive them to a butchers shop for later sale. Although the place was very clean and efficient, it wasn’t the most pleasant of farms and the owner and staff seemed completely unconcerned about their ducks… I suppose it would be silly to get attached.

Well, according to this story, a duck farmer in Poland called Krzystof Makles, has not only became quite attached to one of his ducks, the animal actually has four legs.

When the strange looking bird popped out of it’s egg one cold morning, farmer Makles fully expected the deformed duck to die. When the webbed wonder survived those first few days in the hatchery, he removed it and decided to keep it as a pet, “he just got stronger and stronger and I admired him for his guts,” he explained.

“Now three months on, he really has grown and even though a four-legged duck would sell very well to a butcher, there’s no way I could let him end up on a plate now – he’s a family pet,” farmer Makles added.

Mind you, Christmas will be here soon and those four legs might start to look rather tempting.

Lucky Lottery Dates
A grandmother from Southern California in the USA, has won nine million dollars on the SuperLotto, using the dates of birth of her children and grandchildren. Let’s face it, a lot of us do use these, easy to remember, numbers to fill our lotto tickets.

Well for this lady it has worked, the 73-year-old, Audelia Ramirez, claimed her prize and said that her first purchase would be a new house, after living in a small apartment for many years, it’s her dream to have more space and a garden. Reckon she can get a nice little pad and a reasonable garden with nine big ones in the bank.

Audelia won her booty with the numbers 22, 27, 32, 31, 2 and the special number 11. How you get 32 in a date of birth is still a mystery to me. However, it works, the lady won a bundle.

Titanic Tumor
A team of doctors, mainly from the US, will be arriving in Vietnam in the next few weeks, to remove a tumor from the right leg of 31-year-old Nguyen Duy Hai, who has had the tumor for more than 30 years.

The reason this operation is getting to much publicity is that the tumor now weighs 90 kilos!

The director of the hospital where Nguyen is now resident, Le Hoang Minh, said that it is the biggest tumor ever recorded in their country and said that it had grown a further 10cms in diameter during the last month and gone from 80 to 90 kilos in that time as well.

The surgeon arriving from the US is MaKay McKinnon, who will be assisted by four other doctors in an operation that is expected to last around 14 hours. The reason for such a long procedure is that the tumor is fed by major blood vessels, making it extremely dangerous to remove.

The hospital is covering the cost of Hai’s treatment because his family is too poor to afford any further procedures after he had his leg amputated below the knee 14 years ago to try and stop the spread of the tumor.

Dr. Mckinnon has courted quite a bit of media coverage in recent years, removing large tumors such as this one.

Amish Anger
Nine Amish men have been sentenced to between three and ten days in jail at Graves District Court, Kentucky, USA for non-payment of fines relating to failing to display orange warning triangles on the rear of their horse drawn buggies.

The men refused to pay the fines, stating that such payments would be tantamount to complying with a law they see as a violation of their beliefs against the wearing of bright colours or putting trust in manmade symbols for their safety.

The variation in the sentences was because each man had a different amount of fines and costs, ranging from 148 dollars to over 600 dollars.

The jail, however, has ordered dark-coloured jumpsuits, rather than the usual bright orange ones, in respect of their religious beliefs. Amen to that.

Invisible Beggar?
Found this story on the Metro website, but there are other reports as well and so there should be.

A beggar from Serbia called Nemanja Petrovic decided that he was sick and tired of people just ignoring him, so much so that he considered just calling it a day. Instead, the 42-year-old decided to protest his anger by leaving his shoes and hat in their usual position, but changing his sign to read ‘Invisible Beggar.’

After wandering off for a few hours to forget about how invisible he had become to people, he then returned to pick up his hat and shoes… only to find a crowd of people and the said hat full of money!

“Now I just put down the sign, a pair of shoes as a prop and wait for the donations to roll in, while I have a coffee over the road,” he explained.

It’s a clever idea… you’ve just got to take your hat off to him.