Typo generates nuclear fright

A typing error by a U.S. Congress stenographer… Typo generates nuclear fright

A typing error by a U.S. Congress stenographer triggered alarm in East Africa last week.

Sudanese media outlets picked up a document that suggested the United States had carried out nuclear weapons tests in the country from 1962 to 1970. On a Web site report, a subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives Armed Services Committee mentioned tests conducted in Sudan.

The Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail summoned a U.S. diplomat upon hearing the news, reported Reuters.

The mystery was solved Thursday. “The American administration … said that there is a typing mistake,” Ismail told reporters.

“Instead of writing Sedan, the typist in the military subcommittee branch typed Sudan,” he said.

“Now they want to correct the spelling mistake, and they want to confirm the tests did not take place in Sudan but in Sedan, part of the United States in Nevada,” he said.

Reuters reported that Ismail is “relieved” it was a mistake in the reports.

“Good luck” costs five million fish lives

A New Year’s custom in Iran is blamed for the deaths of many, many goldfish.

The celebration of Norooz, the New Year in the Persian calendar, turns the tiny fish — bred by the millions in March and early April and transported to big cities — into tabletop decorations.

The AFP news agency reported they lie alongside “eggs, wheat, garlic, apples and coins as a sign of fertility, health and good luck.”

According to the Shargh newspaper, five million do not make it as far as the table. Those that do survive are not much luckier: If they are not kept as pets, AFP reported, the fish are “released into the wild,” where survival is hazardous.

Dog runs after stick, impales self

An 18-inch dog in Britain survived swallowing a 16-inch stick last week, a report in The Daily Mail said.

Millie, a 2 -year-old bull terrier, ran to retrieve a stick thrown by her owner. The AFP reported that the stick stuck upright into the ground “like a javelin,” and Millie proceeded to “impale herself” and swallow it whole.

After being taken to a vet, Millie was examined with micro cameras, which showed how the stick had worked itself down Millie’s throat and into her stomach without striking any organs.

After surgery, Millie was left with a “small scratch inside her stomach,” The Daily Mail reported.

Internet casino buys snacks, images of the Virgin Mary

The Internet casino Golden Palace has paid more than $10,600 for a pretzel on the Internet marketplace eBay. The Associated Press reported that “some believe [the pretzel is] shaped like the Virgin Mary holding baby Jesus.”

“What it says to me is that this pretzel is so much more than an edible item,” Machelle Naylor told the AP. Naylor sold the salted snack from her home in St. Paul, Neb.

Golden Palace paid out $28,000 in November for a partially eaten grilled cheese sandwich that resembles the Virgin Mary, according to the Florida woman who discovered it.

“We think the notoriety is worth it,” said Golden Palace spokesman Jon Wolf, who added that the casino acquires such items “for a variety of reasons,” according to the AP.

A restaurant and the Pentagon

A statewide alert in Texas was issued two weeks ago, after two men threatened to blow up a fast-food restaurant and the Pentagon, reported KPRC-TV in Houston.

Federal Bureau of Investigation and Texas Department of Public Safety officials in Wharton, Texas, said the two men were distressed with the food and service at a McDonald’s restaurant, according to the WXII-12 News Web site.

“By the time officials arrived, the men had already fled the scene,” said Richard Coleman, a Wharton Police Department captain.

“[The] two gentlemen made threats toward blowing up McDonald’s and also blowing up the Pentagon,” Coleman said.

Marriage of children, dogs

Four young children married young dogs of the opposite sex in the northern Indian state of Jharkhand last month, in an effort to ward off evil forces.

Officials in Kuluptang village said the “kukur vibaha,” meaning “dog’s marriage,” was part of a traditional tribal ceremony, reported the Press Trust of India News Agency.

Sonamuni, 54, blessed the marriage of her 3-year-old granddaughter Priya to a puppy. She told the Press Trust the weddings were just as important as other customs.

Relatives of the two boys and two girls danced to music before the children were led to a place of worship to formalize the marriage.

The Press Trust of India reported, “All customs which are normally associated with a marriage were followed, but discreetly. Every dog has its day, and what’s better than tying the knot with a human?”

United States, China criticize each other

The United States and China exchanged barbs through their human rights reports two weeks ago.

In its annual human rights report, the U.S. State Department charged China with using the War on Terror to clamp down on peaceful opposition in Muslim parts of the country.

In turn, China’s State Council produced its own report, writing that the treatment of Iraqi prisoners “exposed the dark side” of the United States’ human rights record.

“The scandal shocked … humanity and was condemned by the international community,” said the report, published through the official Xinhua news agency.

The United States, the report stated, modeled itself as the “world human rights police, while all the time disregarding its own misdeeds.”

Reuters reported that the Chinese indictment made “no mention of President [George W.] Bush and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld condemning the abuses and then-Secretary of State Colin Powell apologizing to the victims.”

Gorilla seeks nipples, women sue

Three women have filed lawsuits against the Gorilla Foundation, an establishment that promotes the preservation and examination of gorillas. It is home to Koko, the famous sign-language speaking gorilla.

Last month, Iris Rivera, 39, became the third woman to sue with the claim that the foundation’s president, Francine Patterson, directed her to expose her breasts for Koko, reported the AP.

Koko, weighing in at 300 pounds, has a vocabulary of more 1,000 signs. Patterson, the women allege, told the employees Koko had signed that she wanted to see their nipples.

“Rivera’s lawsuit alleges sexual and disability discrimination, invasion of privacy and Labor Code violations, and seeks unspecified damages,” the AP reported.

Whole new world

After scientists explored an entirely new field of thermal vents in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, a strange new world emerged.

According to the report of the expedition, led by researcher Deborah S. Kelley of the University of Washington, see-through shrimp, crabs and other life forms crowd the white mineral chimney vents that clutter the field, named “Lost City” by scientists.

The report is published in the current issue of the journal Science.

The Lost City was discovered by accident in 2000, and a team returned in 2003.

Antje Boetius, a member of the trip from the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen, Germany, said the “amount of living organisms found inside the chimneys at the city was astonishing,” reported the AP.

The fluid escaping the vents reaches just less than 200 degrees Fahrenheit, significantly less than the vents’ dark counterparts, “black smokers,” which eject water at temperatures reaching 700 degrees.

Kelley said the discovery of the large numbers of strange, and mostly transparent or translucent, varieties of shrimp and crabs shows “how little we know about the ocean.”

Babies charged

Four infants were carried into a Bangladeshi court by their parents last month. The four, aged between 3 months and 2 years, faced charges of looting and causing criminal damage.

Relatives of the family said a neighbor brought the case as part of a land dispute, reported The Guardian.

Local police have ordered an investigation into the case against the children. It appears to be “false and fabricated,” said deputy police commissioner Billalur Rahman, according to the BBC Web site.

Anyone can file a criminal charge in Bangladesh, and in some cases, the procedure is abused as part of continued harassment, according to The Guardian.