Odds & Ends

Roman goddess found in sewer

In Rome recently, workers found a statue of the goddess Venushas in a sewer. The only thing left of the statue, which was found in a shaft of the sewer, is its naked torso. The workers were repairing the Cologne sewer, which dates back to before the fall of Rome in 355 A.D. Officials believe the statue was damaged when the city was destroyed. They also say it was used to build the sewer during the rebuilding of Rome a year after its fall. After she is cleaned, Venushas will be displayed at a Cologne museum.

Man paying railway after train ran over him

A man is paying the Polish railway PKP because he caused a delay in railway traffic — he was run over by a train. Pawel Banaszek, age 19, was paralyzed after being run over in August 2003. Representatives from PKP say the delays add up to $580. Banaszek is paying $240 to PKP — the other half was written off — in monthly installments from his disability pension. Banaszek’s house also recently burned down and Krzysztof Lancucki, spokesperson for PKP, said it will probably write off the rest of the debt if he formally requests. Wyborcza said men who beat him in the Polish village Stare Bosewo left him on the train tracks. Regional prosecutor Robert Strzeminski said there was no evidence of a beating.

Teacher punishes pupils with dung

An Indian teacher has been suspended for making his pupils eat cow feces as punishment. Bosavarajappa, the teacher, allegedly imposed the punishment because the children laughed at him after he fell asleep in class and fell off his chair. The teacher from the government school at Arundi is being accused of forcing students and faculty members eat the feces four times. Parents became concerned when the children did not want to go to school and complained to school officials. The parents then took their complaints to education officials, who suspended Bosavarajappa.

Beware of busty barmaids at Oktoberfest

A gang called the ‘boob bandits’ has been stealing money from people at Oktoberfest, according to police in Munich, Germany. The ‘bandits’ distract festival-goers with a buxom barmaid while a man and another woman steal the persons’ wallet. Males attending Oktoberfest are now being warned to be wary around busty barmaids flashing their breasts. Oktoberfest ends this weekend.

Czech’s exchanging blood for beer

Instead of orange juice after donating blood, nurses in Prague are giving donors beer. Hundreds of people from around Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic, have begun donating blood in response to the beer for blood campaign. The new campaign promises people free beer and magazines in exchange for their blood. The droves of people from Prague and neighboring provinces receive pints of beer and a subscription to a beer magazine at clinis around the Czech capital. The campaign is going on throughout the St. Wenceslas Beer Festival, which health authorities say was intentional.

Group protests hunting ban with dead animals

Animal carcasses were thrown and women showed their breasts in protest to a law being passed in England banning hunting with hounds. About 8,000 demonstrators gathered in Brighton, England during Prime Minister Tony Blair’s Labor Party conference. Three animal carcases were left near the conference center where the meeting was held: two calves and one horse. Also, some women wearing bathing suits flashed their breasts and leapt into the English Channel. Sept. 16 parliamentarians from the Labor Party voted to ban fox-hunting. Protesters say the ban on hunting will put thousands of rural people out of work.