SOUTH KOREA
Screwdriver wreaks havoc
Operators of a nuclear power plant on Thursday said that a stray screwdriver was most likely to blame after a reactor had to be shut down for three days. The reactor in Yeonggwang, about 260km south of Seoul, stopped working on Feb. 4. It was restarted after engineers carried out repairs to the cooling pump, a company spokesman said. “A 30cm-long screwdriver was found in the cooling pump’s motor and we believe this might have caused the trouble,” he said.
AUSTRALIA
Bats served eviction notice
A colony of 22,000 bats may be coming to a neighborhood near you after a court served the flying foxes with an eviction notice and allowed the government to chase them away with loud industrial noise. The court ruled that the gray-headed flying foxes could be driven out of the Royal Botanical Gardens in the heart of Sydney as the colony has grown too big and is threatening hundreds of rare and protected trees. However, conservation groups say the gardens are a critical roosting habitat for the bats and if chased away, they have few places to go other than the city. “They will likely drift into suburban parks and suburban streets,” said Storm Stanford at Bat Advocacy NSW, a group that fought in the courts for the bats.
UNITED STATES
Leering men caught out
Footage that two New Zealand women shot using a hidden camera to catch men leering at their behinds has gone viral on the Internet, attracting more than 1 million hits in three days. Jessie Gurunathan and Reanin Johannink rigged up a camera to covertly record men’s reactions as they walked the streets of Los Angeles, posting the resulting footage on video-sharing site YouTube. “If you’ve ever wondered what goes on behind your back, we’ve we figured out a way to bust people, so checkout ass-cam,” Johannink says in the clip. The video, titled Rear View Girls, shows some men making blatant double takes to ogle the women. Even a man dressed as Jesus sneaks a look.
PHILIPPINES
Funeral gambling takes a hit
A priest has threatened to deny burial rights in cases where mourners at funerals are caught gambling, a tradition exploited by gaming syndicates who mount “fake” wakes. Father Valentine Dimoc of the Saint Mary Magdalene Parish said authorities in the northern town of Lagawe had already passed an ordinance banning gambling at funeral wakes, but officials and police were failing to enforce it. Gambling on cards at funerals is a tradition used to help family members pay for the cost of the burial. However with few opportunities for legitimate gambling due to strict limits, syndicates have been known to use phoney wakes — complete with a rented corpse — to hold gaming sessions.
NEW ZEALAND
Horse semen put on menu
Long renowned for pioneering extreme sports such as bungee-jumping and heli--skiing, the country’s residents are now pushing culinary boundaries by serving up shots of horse semen to iron-stomached food lovers. The equine delicacy will be on the menu at the annual Wildfoods Festival in the South Island town of Hokitika next month, along with other gastronomic delights such as raw scorpions and chocolate-covered beetles. “The idea is you’ll have as much zizz as a stallion for a week afterwards,” said Christchurch racehorse breeder Lindsay Kerslake, who came up with the semen surprise.
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