Yahoo! News: Oddly Enough - Reuters

Oddly Enough - Reuters

• Babette's errant email cripples German parliament (Reuters)

  Reuters - The German parliament's email system was hampered for several hours for more than 4,000 staffers and deputies when hundreds of workers responded to an errant email sent by one staffer named "Babette" to all 4,032 co-workers.

• Revealed: Famous names who snubbed UK queen's honors (Reuters)

  Reuters - Receiving an honor from Britain's Queen Elizabeth marks the pinnacle of many careers. But for more than 250 people named in a once-secret official document, the idea was so unappealing that they turned down the monarch's offer.

• Irishman makes "billion-euro home" of shredded notes (Reuters)

  Reuters - An unemployed Irish artist has built a home from the shredded remains of 1.4 billion euros ($1.82 billion), a monument to the "madness" he says has been wrought on Ireland by the single currency, from a spectacular construction boom to a wrenching bust.

• Four-year-old U.S. boy pulls out marijuana at school (Reuters)

  Reuters - A four-year-old U.S. boy who announced to his teacher at school snack time that he wanted to share pulled nine bags of marijuana out of his jacket pocket, police said on Wednesday.

• $5 here, $37 there: Americans' indulgences add up (Reuters)

  Reuters - Those venti lattes add up.

• London's Big Ben is leaning, parliament sinking: reports (Reuters)

  Reuters - The landmark clock tower containing Big Ben at Britain's Palace of Westminster, is tilting, while media reports Monday said the mother of all parliaments was slipping into the River Thames, raising fears over its future.

• Greece publishes tax dodger list to name and shame (Reuters)

  Reuters - A famous singer and a retired basketball star were on a list of 4,000 top tax dodgers released by the Greek government as part of a name-and-shame policy to get evaders to pay up.

• Italy's "Get back on board, damn it!" T-shirts a hit (Reuters)

  Reuters - A coast guard officer's "Get back on board damn it!" order to the fleeing captain of the capsized Costa Concordia liner is being printed on T-shirts by a company hoping to inspire Italians to rescue their country from economic crisis.

• Photo-happy judge adds Marley, ostrich to opinions (Reuters)

  Reuters - A Chicago judge is under fire for making his rulings look a bit like a graphic novel, using pictures of reggae icon Bob Marley, lions, ostriches and other images to underscore his opinions.

• China driving schools teaching millions the art of war (Reuters)

  Reuters - China is rapidly becoming a country on wheels and its crowded driving schools are racing to churn out licensed drivers as fast as cars roll off the assembly lines.

• Year of the Dragon may burn Putin, light up for Pacino (Reuters)

  Reuters - The coming Year of the Dragon will bring actor Al Pacino good fortune, but Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin needs to watch out -- he may lose vast sums of money.

• Close shave for Britain's eBay athlete (Reuters)

  Reuters - A shaving company has come to the rescue of a British athlete who put himself up for auction on eBay to secure sponsorship for the London Olympics only to find the winning bidder was a hoax.

• Priests, farmers, lesbian truckers tweet for Sweden (Reuters)

  Reuters - Sweden is tweeting to the world, and this week she is Hanna, "just your average lesbian truck driver."

• Colombia rebels selling cows as drug money drops: Santos (Reuters)

  Reuters - Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said on Monday the country's largest rebel group was increasingly selling its cattle to finance South America's longest-running insurgency as income from trafficking cocaine drops.

• Iran cracks down on moral peril of Barbie peddlers (Reuters)

  Reuters - Iran's morality police are cracking down on the sale of Barbie dolls to protect the public from what they see as pernicious western culture eroding Islamic values, shopkeepers said on Monday.

• Troubled euro gains currency with counterfeiters (Reuters)

  Reuters - Europe's debt crisis may be threatening to unravel the euro but criminals increasingly see the single currency as worth counterfeiting.

• Modern trading killing off "barrow boy" market slang (Reuters)

  Reuters - "The Old Lady just bought half a yard of cable and there are plenty of bids for Bill and Ben."

  
  

• Banned Bulgarian soccer referee uses false identity (Reuters)

  Reuters - A banned Bulgarian referee took charge of this week's friendly between Werder Bremen and AZ Alkmaar under a false identity, state television BNT reported on Friday.

• Russian villager mistakenly buys Kalashnikov arsenal (Reuters)

  Reuters - A Russian villager discovered a stockpile of Kalashnikov assault rifles hidden in the wooden crates he bought for $15 from a stranger to use as fuel for his winter stove.

• Sweden gives digital piracy advocate religion status (Reuters)

  Reuters - Sweden dealt a symbolic blow to the global fight against digital music and film piracy by recognizing a group that promotes file-sharing across the Internet as a religion.