■ United States
The Seattle Coffee Party
Coffee shop owners in Seattle staged their own environmentally friendly version of the Boston Tea Party of 1773 on Sunday, to protest a proposed US$0.1 tax per cup on the city's beloved espresso drinks. About 100 people who own or work in small coffee shops took a horse-drawn carriage from Zoka Coffee Roaster and Tea Company in Seattle to Green Lake, where they dumped bags of coffee beans into the water -- a protest reminiscent of early American colonists' protests at British taxes. But these protesters filled the bags with balloons, so they could retrieve the bags afterwards and thereby not spoil the lake.
■ South Africa
Woman hits the jackpot
A young Zambian woman on Sunday won the African version of the reality TV show Big Brother, the program that proved far more popular with the public than with outraged politicians and church leaders. Cherise Makubale, 24, burst into tears after a phone-in vote from across Africa confirmed her as the winner of the contest, making her US$100,000 dollars richer. The spritely Makubale, a procurement officer from the northern Zambian town of Kitwe, was the last person to walk out of the "Big Brother House" in Johannesburg, where 12 contestants have been living for the last 106 days.
■ United States
Male menopause dispelled
Men who complain of the male menopause are more likely to be the victims of an unhealthy lifestyle, an scientist says. Professor John McKinlay, a leading authority on men's health, argues that the male menopause is a myth. He claims drug companies were cashing in on the false notions of men who think they need hormone replacement to boost their flagging sex drives.
■ Canada
Fires ravage western region
High winds fanned forest fires raging in western Canada, forcing Sunday's evacuation of more than 1,700 people, local authorities announced. Nearly 1,000 people were forced out of their homes in the middle of the night around Kelowna, bringing to more than 4,000 the residents evacuated since last week, emergency services spokesman Ron Matiussi said. Kelowna, a town of 100,000 residents in the Okanagan valley, one of Canada's two largest wine-growing regions, has been fighting the forest fires for the past three weeks. Sparked by lightning amid bone-dry conditions, the blaze has already destroyed 250 homes around the town. Around 30,000 people have been forced to flee their homes.
RSS