Most Bizarre Stories of 2004

[southerngale]

+------------- Most Bizarre Stories of 2004 --------------+

Here is a selection of some "offbeat" stories which offered
an insight into human nature in 2004, courtesy of yahoo.com:

ZHENGZHOU, China: A Chinese couple raised their only child
for 13 years in the belief it was a girl, until a visit to
the local hospital alerted them to the fact that he was
really a boy with underdeveloped sexual organs. They did not
realize anything was wrong until they were baffled by a
"reaction in the lower half of his body" whenever he watched
pretty women on TV.

RATCHABURI, Thailand: A group of Thai Buddhist monks were
arrested and defrocked after holding a spate of rowdy drug
and alcohol parties. Villagers complained about their wild
behavior and drug-taking at the local temple. Five of the
saffron-robed monks tested positive for amphetamine pills
and a sixth was blind drunk.

COSENZA, Italy: A driverless railway engine thundered nearly
120 miles through southern Italy at 50 miles an hour before
staff managed to derail it. The driver had set the loco-
motive in motion, leaned out to see if the line ahead was
clear, then slipped and fell from his cabin. Another railway
worker tried to jump aboard and stop it but failed and the
train gathered speed until it was finally switched to a
track with a long incline and it smashed through buffers at
a disused station before finally coming to a halt.

ZAGREB: A South African who fell in love with a Croatian
beauty he has never even spoken to, traveled halfway round
the world in search of the woman of his dreams. Keith van
der Spuy saw the woman only twice, on a boat and in a night-
club, while on vacation in the former Yugoslav republic but
could not get her out of his head and returned to Croatia
weeks later, with two diamonds in his pocket, to track down
the haunting blonde -- but, sadly, to no avail.

ALDERSHOT, England: A drunken soldier sparked a major secur-
ity alert after leaving a regimental party dressed as an
Arab suicide bomber. Fifteen police cars, along with dog
handlers were called out after a passer-by spotted someone
near an army base wearing an Arab-style robe, a turban and
false beard, as well as orange paper, wires and candles
stuffed into a jacket to make it look like he was carrying
explosives. The soldier, who was drunk, was ordered to pay
a small on-the-spot fine.

LONDON: A number of wealthy clients of the smart London
restaurant Zafferano clubbed together to buy one of the most
expensive truffles in the world for 40,000 euros (53,000
dollars), but it ended up spoiling in a refrigerator. The
850-gram (30-ounce) delicacy from Tuscany was put on display
at the restaurant but then the chef went on vacation after
locking the truffle in the fridge and taking the keys with
him. When he returned after four days, he found it had
rotted, forcing the owner to throw the whole thing out.

CHISINAU, Moldova: The president of first division football
club Roso saw red when the referee awarded a penalty against
his team, so he leaped into his jeep, drove it on to the
pitch and tried to run the hapless official down. Mikhail
Makayev chased the astonished referee around the ground for
several minutes until he escaped by clambering up into the
stands. The match was abandoned and Roso's opponents
Poitekhnik were awarded the game 3-0.

GUWAHATI, India: An army officer was dismissed and another
suspended after a court martial found they splashed tomato
ketchup on civilians to make them look like dead Assam
separatist rebels in a bid for a gallantry medal. Colonel
H.S. Kohli took photos of civilians posing as corpses and
gave them to his senior officers as proof of the killings,
but records later showed no deaths had been reported.

PALEMBANG, Indonesia: A landmark bridge in Sumatra is in
danger of collapse because too many men are urinating on one
of its steel pillars. Surveyors have found that the Ampera
bridge in Palembang has begun to lean at an angle and rocks
slightly when traffic is heavy. The acidic fluid's corrosive
forces could lead to the eventual collapse of the bridge.

OSLO: Until the divorce papers dropped into her mail box, a
22-year-old woman was unaware that she had been married to a
complete stranger for a year. The woman's wallet was snatched
some years ago and her identification cards were used in an
Islamic ceremony to unite her and a Pakistani man in holy
matrimony. She hopes to have the marriage annulled, but
investigators have closed the case as they cannot find the
man, believed to be operating under several different
aliases.

[Brent]

Those are bizarre alright...

Can we fit Michael Jackson onto it somewhere? He's just bizarre all around.