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Odd News Top Stories
Octogenarian Nabbed in Prostitution Ring
LINDENWOLD, N.J. (AP) - Police made a surprising discovery when they busted the alleged madam of a prostitution ring called ``August Playmates'': The woman running the show was an 80-year-old grandmother. Authorities arrested Vera Tursi last month during a sting operation to crack down on prostitution rings posing as legal escort services. Police say Tursi ran the business from her two-bedroom apartment, taking $60 of every $160 she charged clients for one hour with a call girl.
'Pig-Ball' Soccer Match Staged in Russia
MOSCOW (AP) - In this game, everyone stinks and hogging the ball is to be expected. Ten squealing, wriggling piglets pushed (and licked) a soccer ball around a small caged pen Sunday in what organizers said was Russia's first-ever ``pig-ball'' championships. The event, staged as part of an agricultural exhibition on Moscow's outskirts, is set up like soccer, with two teams of five piglets. Instead of goals, the teams try to move the ball into painted, half-circles located at the pen's corners. To move things along, the ball is slathered in mashed carrots.
Bible-belt town bans blasphemy
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - The name of the Lord may no longer be taken in vain in the Dutch village of Staphorst.
Staphorst, in the so-called Dutch "bible belt" of eastern towns where religion holds sway, approved a ban on swearing by 13-4 council votes.
But the caveat that swearing is not banned when it is an expression of the constitutional freedom of speech may make it difficult to punish offenders.
"A ban on swearing can be seen as a signal," the council's proposal said, adding a change in moral values was needed to address the underlying problem.
Past swearing bans in bible-belt villages were declared in violation of the right to free expression in 1986. One other town has such a ban -- Reimerswaal, in the southwestern province of Zeeland.
The Dutch association against swearing, which runs national billboard campaigns to admonish the bad-mouthed Dutch, says the Bible outlaws swearing.
"Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain," it quotes Exodus 20:7.
Octogenarian Nabbed in Prostitution Ring
LINDENWOLD, N.J. (AP) - Police made a surprising discovery when they busted the alleged madam of a prostitution ring called ``August Playmates'': The woman running the show was an 80-year-old grandmother. Authorities arrested Vera Tursi last month during a sting operation to crack down on prostitution rings posing as legal escort services. Police say Tursi ran the business from her two-bedroom apartment, taking $60 of every $160 she charged clients for one hour with a call girl.
'Pig-Ball' Soccer Match Staged in Russia
MOSCOW (AP) - In this game, everyone stinks and hogging the ball is to be expected. Ten squealing, wriggling piglets pushed (and licked) a soccer ball around a small caged pen Sunday in what organizers said was Russia's first-ever ``pig-ball'' championships. The event, staged as part of an agricultural exhibition on Moscow's outskirts, is set up like soccer, with two teams of five piglets. Instead of goals, the teams try to move the ball into painted, half-circles located at the pen's corners. To move things along, the ball is slathered in mashed carrots.
Bible-belt town bans blasphemy
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - The name of the Lord may no longer be taken in vain in the Dutch village of Staphorst.
Staphorst, in the so-called Dutch "bible belt" of eastern towns where religion holds sway, approved a ban on swearing by 13-4 council votes.
But the caveat that swearing is not banned when it is an expression of the constitutional freedom of speech may make it difficult to punish offenders.
"A ban on swearing can be seen as a signal," the council's proposal said, adding a change in moral values was needed to address the underlying problem.
Past swearing bans in bible-belt villages were declared in violation of the right to free expression in 1986. One other town has such a ban -- Reimerswaal, in the southwestern province of Zeeland.
The Dutch association against swearing, which runs national billboard campaigns to admonish the bad-mouthed Dutch, says the Bible outlaws swearing.
"Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain," it quotes Exodus 20:7.