■ GAZA STRIP
Anchors rally against threat
A group of female TV anchors marched through Gaza City on Sunday to protest a fundamentalist group's threat to behead them if they did not don modest Islamic dress. About 50 anchors and staffers from the state-run Palestine TV marched from the station's offices in Gaza City toward the office of President Mahmoud Abbas to protest the threat from a group calling itself the Swords of Truth, known for firebombing Internet cafes and record stores. Most of the 15 female anchors wear headscarves, but they also wear makeup and Western clothing, which extremists consider immodest.
■ UNITED STATES
Guitarists aim for record
More than 1,680 guitar players turned out, tuned up and took part in what organizers say was a world record rendition of Deep Purple's Smoke on the Water -- a song that was the first many of them ever learned. Some came from as far away as California and Germany on Sunday to take part in a Kansas City radio station's effort to break a Guinness world record for the most people playing the same song simultaneously. The record had been 1,323 people playing the same song in Vancouver, Canada, in 1994. Preliminary numbers show 1,683 people played the popular early 1970s guitar riff at CommunityAmerica Ballpark on Sunday.
■ UNITED STATES
Wild turkeys moving to city
Wild turkeys have been showing up on the streets of a Detroit suburb, pecking at windows and eating from bird feeders. The skittish birds are generally found in rural areas or large parks, but naturalists and wildlife experts say the turkeys could get used to life in this city of more than 78,000 people. "Wherever you have a suburb that still has large stands of big trees left, where they think they are comfortable, you may be prone to having wild turkeys," said Joe Derek, city naturalist for Farmington Hills.
■ UNITED KINGDOM
`Collins' adds new words
Hoodies, wags, carbon footprints and muffin tops have entered the English language, the ninth edition of the Collins English Dictionary launched yesterday. A hoodie is "a young person who wears a hooded sweatshirt, regarded by some as a potential hooligan," the new dictionary said. And wags, the pampered wives and girlfriends spending their partners' cash, take their place after a sterling performance accompanying the England soccer team at last year's World Cup. From fashion circles, muffin tops, the flabby bulge over the top of a tight pair of jeans, squeezes in. A Collins spokesperson said that many of the words "will undoubtedly sink back into obscurity being bound up with today's ephemera, but others will take root."
RSS