Global Oddities

A 61-year-old former University of Washington staff member doused himself with gasoline and set himself ablaze Thursday in the midst of a crowded campus plaza. He died a short time later.

The man, who authorities did not immediately identify, died shortly after he was brought to Harborview Medical Center, hospital spokeswoman Susan Gregg-Hanson said.

“We do not know why he did it,” said UW Assistant Police Chief Ralph Robinson, adding the man suffered second- and third-degree burns. “That’s a big mystery.”

The man had been part of the university’s support staff, Robinson said. He said he didn’t know what department the man worked in, or when or why he left.

Witnesses in Red Square, a large brick plaza at the center of the Seattle campus, reported seeing “this big flame and a ball of fire” around 1 p.m. Thursday, Robinson said.

Source: AP, October 30, 2008

The Roman Catholic Church has issued guidance for future priests to have psychological tests to weed out those unable to control their sexual urges.
A senior churchman said a series of sex scandals had contributed to the rewriting of the guidelines.
The authors said screening would help avoid “tragic situations” caused by what they termed psychological defects.
The guidance says the voluntary tests should also aim to vet for those with “deep-seated homosexual tendencies”.
Among other traits that might make a candidate unsuitable for the priesthood, the advice lists “uncertain sexual identity,” “excessive rigidity of character” and “strong affective dependencies”.
The document also makes reference to heterosexual urges.
Seminarians should be barred if testing makes it “evident the candidate has difficulty living in celibacy: That is, if celibacy for him is lived as a burden so heavy that it compromises his affective and relational equilibrium”, it says.
The advice stipulates priests must have a “positive and stable sense of one’s masculine identity”.
The document, approved by Pope Benedict XVI and made public on Thursday, stresses that the screening must always have the candidate’s consent.

Source: BBC online news. October 30, 2008

Barack Obama apparently can count on the support of a majority of Peruvian faith healers.

Each of the 11 shamans in a Peruvian faith-healing organization said they have foreseen victory in the U.S. presidential race: nine for Democrat Obama and two for his Republican rival John McCain. Blowing incense over a sacred llama fetus perched on a bed of coca leaves next to posters of the leading candidates, the shamans shook rattles, chanted “up, Obama, up!” and threw flowers at their images.

“Obama is growing stronger, I’ve seen that he has the spiritual support of Martin Luther King and John F. Kennedy to protect him,” Juan Osco, president of the Apus-Inka healers association, told The Associated Press. “He’s going to win.”

Mary Gomez, a healer from the city of Chiclayo, said she has seen that Obama “will win and he will change history … he is going to help all the Latinos living in the United States.”

The shamans whistled, chanted and rubbed both posters with Andean spirit-totems, crucifixes, a statue of a dark-skinned Jesus and other idols to scare away bad spirits and negative energies they said might prevent a fair and democratic election.

“We are cleansing both of them so that on Nov. 4 the person that the U.S. really deserves wins,” Osco said. “We have seen that if the election is not fair, there will be another global economic crisis, war and despair.”

Source: AP, October 29, 2008

A government Web site for Brazil’s prostitutes that suggests they be prepared to perform fantasies and offer specialties, among other tips, is going to be toned down.
Prostitution is legal in Brazil and sex worker advocacy groups say the Labour Ministry Web site aims to promote the human rights of prostitutes.
However, critics say the site goes too far, and its contents have become fodder for Brazilian newspapers.
The site urges hookers to demonstrate an ability to perform erotic fantasies and to demonstrate a capacity to communicate in a foreign language.
The site, which began in 2002, also gives prostitutes advice on how to negotiate condom use with customers and encourages them to denounce violence.
Opponents had said the site should be changed so it doesn’t appear to encourage prostitution.
Law professor Luiz Flavio Gomes says the site gives the impression of an apology for sexual exploitation.
Source: AP, October 28, 2008

The world’s heaviest man has tied the knot.
Manuel Uribe, who hasn’t left his bed in six years, married his longtime girlfriend Claudia Solis Sunday in northern Mexico.

Wearing a white silk shirt with a sheet wrapped around his legs, Uribe smiled as Solis, 38, walked down a flight of stairs wearing a strapless ivory dress, a tiara and hot-pink lipstick.
He later broke into tears as a notary declared the couple husband and wife in a civil ceremony attended by more than 400 guests. For the traditional first dance as newlyweds, Uribe and Solis held hands and swayed to a romantic ballad.
A popular local norteno band played accordion-heavy tunes at the reception, which featured a banquet of meat and buttered vegetables.
Uribe’s mother, Orquedia Garza, said the groom steered clear of the five-tier wedding cake.
“He didn’t break his diet,” she told The Associated Press. “His doctors are here and they are watching him very closely.”

Source: AOL News, October 27, 2008

Asha Mandela has hair that could rival that of the title character in the German fairy tale Rapunzel.

The South Florida woman who started growing her hair 20 years ago now has locks a lot longer than she is tall.

Mandela has submitted her hair, which measures 8 feet 9 inches long, to the Guinness Book of World Records for the Longest Dreadlocks, the first entry in a new category.

It takes one bottle of shampoo and one bottle of conditioner every time she washes her hair, which sometimes takes days to fully dry.

The 46-year-old Mandela says she used to wash it three times a week, but is now down to once a week.

She calls the process “very tiring” and says sometimes she just doesn’t have the energy.

Source: Yahoo news, October 24, 2008

A Polish driver who was too sure of his GPS road navigation device ended up neck-deep in a lake after ignoring road signs warning of a dead-end ahead, Polish police said Friday.

“The man took a road that was closed a year ago when the area was flooded to make an artificial lake serving as a water reservoir — he ignored three road signs warning of a dead-end,” Piotr Smolen, police spokesman in Glubczyce, southern Poland, told AFP Friday.
“It was still night time and he didn’t notice the road led into the lake. His GPS told him to drive straight ahead and he did,” Smolen said, adding the driver had not been under the influence of alcohol.
The road ran straight downhill into the lake. The Mercedes mini-van was nearly entirely submerged and was unable to back out on its own after being inundated with water.
The driver and two passengers escaped unharmed from the submerged vehicle and waited on its roof for police and fire rescue crews.
The driver placed the first call to emergency services while still inside the sinking van.
Source: AFP, October 24, 2008

A Roman Catholic nun who accused a Hindu mob of raping her said Friday that she will not cooperate with local police, alleging that they stood by idly during the attack.

Hiding her head and face behind a scarf, the nun told reporters that she was raped after a mob attacked a Christian prayer hall on Aug. 25 in the eastern state of Orissa.
In her first public comments, the nun said a group of about 50 men tore off her clothes and raped her. Later, she said, she was paraded naked, together with a priest, past several policeman who refused to help her.
When she arrived at the police station, officers tried to dissuade her from filing a complaint, she said.
“I was raped and now I don’t want to be victimized by Orissa police,” she said, calling for a federal investigation.
Orissa police have been harshly criticized for waiting more than a month to begin investigating the attack and only taking steps after the story appeared in news reports.
Police said they had been waiting for a medical report confirming a rape in order to begin their investigation. Police have since detained five men, though it was unclear whether they have been charged with any crime.
Source: AOL/AP: October 24, 2008

India’s million-plus army is consuming much more alcohol than permitted, causing huge financial losses to the state and raising suspicions of widespread black marketeering, a report said Thursday.

Among the biggest culprits is the Indian army’s most prestigious hospital in New Delhi and a military spy unit attached to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s office, the Midday evening newspaper said.

When contacted by AFP, defence ministry and army sources confirmed there was a serious problem.

Indian soldiers are allowed a certain amount of heavily-subsidised liquor for personal consumption, but the report said the limit was being widely flouted.

It said 43 army units had inflicted a loss of around 100 million rupees (at least two million dollars) on the government over the past 18 months, the paper said.

“We suspect some of it is finding its way into the civilian market and we are trying to plug it,” a colonel from the army’s Central Stores Department told AFP.

A major-general was arrested in 2005 after he smuggled two truck-loads of liquor to the open market, where military alcohol can be sold for double the price soldiers pay.

The army recently issued smart cards to its 1.23 million troopers keep tabs on consumption.
Souce: AFP, October 23, 2008.

A new $15 million veterinary hospital for four-legged military personnel opened Tuesday at Lackland Air Force Base, offering a long overdue facility that gives advanced medical treatment for combat-wounded dogs.

Dogs working for all branches of the military and the Transportation Safety Administration are trained at the base to find explosive devices, drugs and land mines. Some 2,500 dogs are working with military units.
Like soldiers and Marines in combat, military dogs suffer from war wounds and routine health issues that need to be treated to ensure they can continue working.
Dogs injured in Iraq or Afghanistan get emergency medical treatment on the battlefield and are flown to Germany for care. If necessary, they’ll fly on to San Antonio for more advanced treatment — much like wounded human personnel.

Source: AOL news, October 22, 2008