The Weird and the Wonderful
On Friday the 22nd of May two Buddha statues where taken from the waiting room of the holistic therapy salon College George.
The holistic therapy salon, situated on New Street, has no increased its security measures and local police are investigating the theft.
Both Buddha statues are gold. The larger statue featured the Buddha in a lying down position while the second statue depicts a standing Buddha.
Kenco coffee has entered into a six figure ad deal with IPC to run a marketing campaign across four of the publisher’s magazines. Marie Claire, Essentials, Ideal Home and woman&home magazines will be used by the coffee company to promote the brand’s association with the Rainforest Alliance.
The three month deal will try and capitalise on the readership demographic of each magazine – such as “me-time”, “thinking time” and “catching up with friends” themes.
The coffee company will also pay for a “special paper mechanic” designed to bookmark the tailored advertising messages once readers open them up.
Case files from General Practitioners across England which contained details of complaints from patients became public this week.
Right-wing English tabloids are heralding a case of a pagan patient winning an apology from her doctor for “oozing Christianity” as ridiculous as the case of a GP forced to apologise to a patient when he refused to write a sick note to cover for a hangover.
The case file from the pagan also notes that the patient expressed concerns that her GP had drastically changed her medication and had made condescending and threatening statements to her. The issue of the doctors Christianity had been raised simply because the patient found the religious differences an obstacle to forming a doctor-patient relationship.
In South Africa, a Transkei woman has been shot dead after she was accused of practising witchcraft.
The murder occurred in Bityi, near Mthatha, and the South African Daily Dispatch reports that the 49-year old woman was shot four times.
Superintendant Mzukisi Fatyela told local press that the shooting happened at about 9:30pm on the Thursday night.
“Two balaclava-clad men entered the house and without saying a word opened fire on the woman, killing her instantly,” said Fatyela.
Author of the acclaimed and controversial His Dark Materials trilogy Philip Pullman will visit volunteers at the Oxfam bookshop in St Giles, Oxford, during Bookfest. Oxfam Bookfest runs across the country from July 4-18th.
Last year a volunteer at the St Giles store spotted an early Graham Greene novel, Rumour at Nightfall, in a box of donated books. The first edition from 1931 was later sold at auction for £15,000 on behalf of Oxfam.
A court in Wellington, New Zealand, was told that a family drowned Janet Moses in an attempt to remove a makutu or curse from her.
All nine people charged with manslaughter, three men and six women, are members of Moses’ family.
Trouble began for Janet Moses when her sister stole a lion statue from a local pub. Janet started acting oddly and a kaumatua, a tribal elder, explained to the family she would continue to do so until the statue was returned.
Fast food powerhouse KFC has donated $3,000 to the American town of Chattanooga to help repair potholes in the road. In exchange for the money the road repair crews use chalk sprays to mark the repairs as “Refreshed by KFC”.
Until the temporary chalk logos wear off over time they act as advertisements for KFC. This has enraged the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) who approached Chattanooga with a counter offer.
PETA offered Chattanooga $6,000 and vegetarian lunches for the road crew. In exchange PETA wished to chalk the repairs with a caricature of KFC’s Col. Harlan Sanders and the phrase “KFC Tortures Animals”.
The fifth Mary King’s Ghost Fest runs from May 8th to May 17th and features a number of famous ghost hunters. Dr Ciaran O’Keeffe and Steve Parsons from Most Haunted will be headlining the investigations.
The Close – or narrow street in Edinburgh, Scotland – is named after Mary King who lived above one until she died in 1644. The ‘Real Mary King’s Close” was built over in 1853. This act, however, helped preseve the ancient street and today it can be accessed as a small underground capsule of houses, history and strangely dark shadows.
The 2009 Mary King’s Ghost Fest is not restricted to the Real Mary King’s Close and features over a dozen locations in Edinburgh.
The North York Moors National Park and the Forestry Commission was joined by The Ministry of Defence in calls to put an end to the macabre and dangerous quest for the remains of a British aircraft.
A mystery crash brought Flying Officer Colin “Snatch” Grabham’s Sabre aircraft down on Hood Hill in 1954.
Collectors with metal detectors have be seen with metal detectors attemping to find either pieces of the historic Sabre aircraft or the crash site.
At the last minute a court in China has decided to postpone judgement on a living Tibetan Buddha.
Phurbu Tsering Rinpoche faces allegations of illegally possessing weapons and seizing government land.
The delay is widely interpreted as promising by legal experts. It is incredibly rare for a Chinese court to issue a delay and signs suggest that both the international public audience and the highly spirited defence has resulted in on-going judicial debate in China.
