Thursday, February 23, 2012

Weekly World News

A prison fire in Honduras killed 359 people, making it the deadliest such fire on record. An inmate was reported to have started the fire after phoning the state governor's office and saying he was going to burn down the prison, then lighting his bedding on fire. The facility was being supervised by 12 guards, who prevented firefighters from entering while the fire spread. "The guards first thought they had a prison break," said the director of Honduras's prison system, "so they followed the law saying no one could enter to prevent unnecessary deaths." 

Icelandic musicians protested the State Alcohol and Tobacco Company of Iceland's ban on Motorhead-brand shiraz, named after the English heavy metal band. "It is a violation of human rights," said Solstafir lead singer Athalbjorn Tryggvason, "to not be able to buy yourself red wine."

Dave Mustaine, lead singer of the heavy metal band Megadeth, announced, then denied, his endorsement of G.O.P. presidential candidate Rick Santorum.

Two F-16s intercepted a Cessna carrying 40 pounds of marijuana over Los Angeles after it entered the airspace of Marine One, which was transporting President Barack Obama on a fundraising trip. 

Six weeks after signing the Shark Conservation Act into law, Obama ate lunch at one of the few California restaurants still serving shark-fin soup. The president "ordered a lot of dim sum takeout," said White House press secretary Jay Carney. "No soup." 

The Chile Pepper Institute at New Mexico State University declared the Trinidad Moruga Scorpion, which burned through the latex gloves of the researchers assigned to pick it, to be the hottest pepper on earth. "There will be a run on seeds and plants," predicted grower Jim Duffy. "Like Cabbage Patch dolls right before Christmas."

Adventurer John Fairfax, who lived as a trapper in the Argentine jungle as a teenager and as a pirate-ship captain in his twenties, and who crossed the Atlantic and Pacific oceans in a rowboat, died at 74. 

A man reportedly suffered a heart attack while eating a Triple Bypass burger at the Heart Attack Grill in Las Vegas.
Calcutta prepared to be painted blue. 

German academics voted "shitstorm" the most useful English loanword in the German language.

A British Airways flight attendant was arrested for writing "The bomb on board will explode at 16.00 GMT unless our demands are met" on a bathroom door during a flight from Tokyo to London. 

Journalists documented the rise of rabbit-petting cafes in Tokyo.

An increasing trend is the spread of decaf "babyccino" coffees from Australia to Brooklyn. "My child has been going to cafes since he was a newborn," said one Brooklyn mother. Babyccinos, said the Australian inventor of the instant babyccino, "interrupt workflow, create milk wastage, and can be served at a dangerous temperature to a vulnerable consumer."

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