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Call me Goodluck: Nigerian Names and The Stories They Tell

So what do you get in Nigeria when you take Sunday, God's Gift, Whoknows, Noisy Place and, of course, Goodluck? Could be a family gathering.

This Sunday's inauguration of President Goodluck Jonathan will do more than officially bring an end to a landmark election period in Nigeria.

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Disconnecting in a Too-Connected World

The knowledge that I'd be cut off from Internet and cellphone service in just a few hours started to relax me long before I reached the secluded, serene site of a two-day yoga retreat in upstate New York.

For 43 magical hours, chirping birds replaced car horns and sirens. Two-hour yoga classes, hammock-lounging and hot-tubbing replaced sitting at my desk in Manhattan.

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N.Z. Truckie 'Blew up Like a Balloon' in Freak Accident

A New Zealand truck driver who inflated "like a balloon" when he fell buttocks-first onto a compressed air nozzle was described as lucky to be alive Wednesday.

Steven McCormack was working on his truck at Opotiki on the North Island on Saturday when he slipped between the cab and the trailer, dislodging the compressed air hose that feeds the brakes, the Whakatane Beacon reported.

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Naharnet Launches its New Website

This week marks a new decade for Naharnet as it bids farewell to its 10-year-old website and enters a new era with a groundbreaking Content Management Platform completely built in-house.

The initial Naharnet 2.0 website will slowly develop into a new environment that will redefine Naharnet as a digital and social media destination for the Lebanese and Arabs across the world.

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N.Z. Casino Staff Battle Pests With 'Flea Collars'

Staff at New Zealand's largest casino have resorted to wearing flea collars to combat a pest infestation, a report said Tuesday.

The staff at Auckland's SkyCity Casino were issued with insect spray to deal with an ongoing pest problem and some had taken to wearing pet flea collars around their ankles to discourage the insects, the New Zealand Herald reported.

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Radio Host Says World's End Actually Coming in October

As crestfallen followers of a California preacher who foresaw the world's end strained to find meaning in their lives, Harold Camping revised his apocalyptic prophecy, saying he was off by five months and the Earth actually will be obliterated on Oct. 21.

Camping, who predicted that 200 million Christians would be taken to heaven Saturday before global cataclysm struck the planet, said Monday that he felt so terrible when his doomsday message did not come true that he left home and took refuge in a motel with his wife. His independent ministry, Family Radio International, spent millions — some of it from donations made by followers — on more than 5,000 billboards and 20 recreational vehicles plastered with the Judgment Day message.

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Italian Baby Dies After Being Left in Hot Car by Father

A distraught Italian father who left his baby in a hot car for five hours after forgetting to drop her off at daycare may face manslaughter charges after the 22-month old died early Sunday.

Elena was barely breathing when her father, Lucio Petrizzi, rushed her to hospital on Wednesday. The professor of veterinary medicine said he was convinced he had dropped her off at daycare on his way to work.

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French Actor Arrested for Mooning in Cannes

Police arrested a French actor for baring his bottom to fans when they asked to take a photograph of him in the movie festival town of Cannes, media and an official said Monday.

Sami Naceri, 49, star of the hit television series "Taxi", was arrested on Sunday and is in police custody, "accused of displaying an intimate part of his anatomy" in public, said the police official, who asked not to be named.

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Gays in Egypt, Tunisia Worry about Post-revolution Era

While many of their compatriots savor a new political era, gays in Egypt and Tunisia aren't sharing the joy, according to activists who wonder if the two revolutions could in fact make things worse for an already marginalized community.

In both countries, gays and their allies worry that conservative Islamists, whose credo includes firm condemnation of homosexuality, could increase their influence in elections later this year.

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Apocalypse Almost: Rapture Has World on Tenterhooks

Warnings by a U.S. fundamentalist preacher that Saturday is Judgment Day have sent some people into hiding or scrambling to repent, while others are planning parties to wave off good Christians as they are beamed up to heaven.

Eighty-nine-year-old tele-evangelist Harold Camping has predicted that at 6:00 pm local time in each of the world's regions the Rapture will happen and good Christians will be beamed up to heaven.

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