Funny But True News Stories #4 - An ongoing series

[totalmotorcycle]

Germans to pay by fingerprint at supermarkets


Customers of a German supermarket chain will soon be able to pay for their shopping by placing their finger on a scanner at the check-out, saving up to 40 seconds spent scrabbling for coins or cards, bosses say.

An Edeka store in the south-west German town of Ruelzheim has piloted the technology since November and now the company plans to equip its stores across the region.

"All customers need do is register once with their identity card and bank details, then they can shop straight away," store manager Roland Fitterer said.

The scanner compares the shopper's fingerprint with those stored in its database along with account details.

Edeka bosses said they were confident the system can not be abused.

The chance of two people having the same fingerprint is about one-in-220-million.

- Reuters

[totalmotorcycle]

Hitler crossed off list of honoured citizens



Adolf Hitler has been removed from the list of honoured citizens in the Bavarian town of Lindau, 72 years after the party dictator rose to power, a member of the municipal council said.

The council voted unanimously at a meeting Tuesday to remove Hitler's name, councilman Alexander Kiss told AFP.

The elected officials agreed it was "absurd" to keep Hitler on an honour roll.

The city became aware that Hitler's name was still on the list during a project to create a plaque with the names of distinguished citizens.

Lindau is located on Lake Constance near Switzerland and Austria.

Hitler was born in Austria and it was in Bavaria that he first built up the party political power base.

- AFP

[totalmotorcycle]

Man poses as mother for two years to get pension



A Turkish man managed to get the pension of his mother for two years after her death, posing as an elderly woman to the local bank and neighbours.

Disguised in his mother's coat, with a headscarf on his head and large glasses over his nose, 47-year-old Serafettin Gencel got caught only after he forgot to change his voice in response to a question by a bank clerk in his latest attempt to withdraw his mother's pension.

Gencel hid the woman's death in 2003 from relatives and neighbors and buried her in the basement of their house in the north-western city of Balikesir, the newspaper Sabah said.

He used to take walks in the neighborhood disguised as his mother so that her absence did not draw attention.

The man had a long criminal record, including robbery, theft and possession of an unlicenced weapon.

-AFP

[totalmotorcycle]

Dolphin 'waves' artificial fin to admirers



A dolphin, equipped with what is believed to be the world's first artificial fin, demonstrated her swimming and jumping skills today to celebrate her recovery at a Japanese aquarium.

The dolphin, named Fuji, carried a message in a case with her mouth, splashed the water with a giant jump and climbed onto a stage in front of 750 spectators at the Churaumi Aquarium on the sub-tropical island of Okinawa.

"She waved her rubber fin a good-bye at the end of the 20-minute demonstration in an event to mark her recovery," Miki Yoshido, the aquarium's director, told AFP by telephone.

Fuji, estimated to be 34 years old, lost 75 per cent of her tail fin due to a mysterious disease in late 2002.

She wears the rubber, which weighs two kilograms with a width of 48 centimetres, for about 20 minutes a day allowing her to jump and swim at the same speed of other dolphins.

Fuji can swim without the artificial fin, which is attached to her body with bolts, but her speed is very slow and she is unable to jump without it.

Fuji was stricken by a mysterious disease causing necrosis, the death of cells.

To save her life, veterinarians had to amputate three-quarters of her tail with an electronic surgical knife.

Weeks after the surgery, a veterinarian at the aquarium asked his friend at Bridgestone, Japan's largest tire maker, for help.

Bridgestone spent about two years developing the artificial fin that can endure the pressure of water in jumping.

The most difficult part was creating the smooth texture of rubber so as not to scratch a dolphin's skin, according to Bridgestone spokesman Shinichi Kobori.

The artificial fin was given to the aquarium for free but it cost the company about 10 million yen ($US95,000 dollars).

-AFP

[totalmotorcycle]

Officer, where's my car?



A Portuguese student who removed the licence plates of his car to have them straightened returned to find police had blown up the vehicle because they feared it contained a bomb, a newspaper reports.

Police in the southern city of Evora, located 150 kilometres south-east of Lisbon, said they were called in Thursday after a local resident reported they saw a man quickly walk away from the car after removing both sets of licence plates, daily 24Horas said.

The busy parking lot was then cordoned off and police explosives experts were called in who decided to blow up the automobile, police officer Gloria Dias told the paper.

"We took adequate measures as everything indicated there was an explosive device in the car," she said.

The owner of the car, identified only as Anselmo, returned four hours later while police were still cleaning up after the operation.

"I left the car a few hours and this happens. I realise it is my fault because a car can't be left like this in a public place, it was a stupid thing to do," he said.

- AFP

[totalmotorcycle]

Indian tax defaulters face the music



Tax defaulters in southern India are being forced to face the music after city authorities hired drummers to play non-stop outside their homes until they pay up.

After many residents ignored repeated demands to settle overdue property taxes, authorities in a city in Andhra Pradesh state have sent 20 groups of drummers to play outside offenders' houses for the past week.

"They put up a spectacle outside the houses of defaulters, draw them out and explain their dues to them and the need to clear it at the earliest," spokesman TSR Anjaneyulu said.

"They don't stop until people agree to clear the dues."

The new method seems to be working.

One week of incessant drumming has cleared 18 per cent of the backlog.

- Reuters

[totalmotorcycle]

Funeral favourites reveal national quirks



A new survey about favourite funeral songs has revealed the differences in musical tastes between various nations and continents.

Cable and Internet music channel Music Choice have surveyed 45,000 people in the United Kingdom and Europe and compiled the top 10 songs people would like to hear at their funerals.

The British love sentiment and irony with Monty Python's Always Look on the Bright Side of Life coming in at number three and Robbie Williams' Angels at number one.

The Europeans favour big guitar rock, with The Show Must Go On by Queen topping the list.

Number two in Europe and number four in the UK is the perennial favourite Stairway to Heaven.

Frank Sinatra's My Way came in at number two in the UK and number four in Europe.

In Australia, the songs that get played at funerals is something the Catholic Church is taking very seriously at the moment.

Executive officer of the National Liturgical Commission for the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, Father Peter Williams, is preparing some guidelines to take to the conference on what songs should be played at funerals and when.

"If it's bringing forward lyrics and messages that are somewhat antithetical to the whole thrust of the Christian act of faith in worship well then it would not be deigned to be appropriate," he said.

This probably means the number two song on the European list, Highway to Hell by AC/DC, would probably not make it in to the mass.

Funeral director Warwick Hanson, from Hanson & Cole in Wollongong, says the music preferred by Australians ranges far and wide.

"There's every type of music that's being played," he said.

"A lot of the Slim Dusty music gets played."

[totalmotorcycle]

McDonald's takes issue with rugby's McBrat pack



A Brisbane rugby union team is facing legal action from a fast food chain because it has put "McBrat" across the back of players' shorts.

McDonald's claims the Brisbane Irish team sponsor's nickname contravenes its intellectual property.

But sponsor Malcolm McBratney, who is, ironically, an intellectual property lawyer, says the McBrats tag simply comes from his name.

Mr McBratney says he is stunned that the fast good giant took exception when he tried to register the name in the Australian Trademarks Office.

"I certainly think McDonald's is trying to bully me," he said.

"They have a history of this type of conduct. They openly admit they have a go at anyone trying to have a trademark involving 'Mac' or 'Mc'."

He added: "What they don't have a right to do is stop people using 'Mc' or stop people applying for trademarks which incorporate 'Mc' when it doesn't impinge on their business interest.

"I'm very determined to follow this through, as are the boys. There'll be no more McDonald's until McDonald's withdraws its application for opposing the mark and because this is my area of law, I won't be lying down for Uncle Ronald."

As a protest, the Brisbane Irish team has banned its front rowers from eating McDonald's hamburgers on St Patrick's Day next Thursday.

[totalmotorcycle]

Fur flies as Bangladesh hospital 'exiles' cats




Health chiefs in Bangladesh have launched a drive to evict some 200 cats living in the wards of the country's premier public hospital.

For years the cats have roamed freely about the hospital, establishing a "mini-kingdom" of their own and growing fat on the food meant for patients, the hospital officials said.

But now a team of ward assistants armed with traps and sacks has swung into action to eject the feline invaders.

"We've caught scores of cats and sent them to exile in faraway places so that they cannot come back to the hospital again," administrator of Dhaka Medical College Hospital Brigadier General MA Matin told AFP.

"The operation will continue as along as a single cat remains in the hospital. Our aim is to create a hygienic atmosphere," Brigadier Matin added.

The eviction drive was launched after patients complained that the hospital had been invaded by hundreds of cats who treated it as their home, other officials said.

The captured cats have been released on the far side of Dhaka's Buriganga river, around five kilometres from the hospital.

The 1,700-bed Dhaka Medical College Hospital is the country's premier state-owned hospital.

Due to governement subsidies, it is also the country's cheapest hospital attracting hundreds of poor who go there for medical treatment each day.

-AFP