Costa Rica: Meet Juan Delgado, 26-year-old painter of popes
How do you get permission to paint a portrait of the Pope? Most of us wouldn’t have any idea where to start, but Juan Manuel Delgado found a simple solution: He wrote the Pope’s sister on Facebook. ... (Read more)
Tico Times
Russia: Lada car driven by a husky puppy (yes, it’s true!) crashes into a gleaming Mercedes in Siberia
The driver of the Zhiguli car, better known outside Russia by the name Lada, and went to a nearby repair store, leaving his Siberian husky puppy in the vehicle.
The animal was not best pleased and started rampaging through the 2106 VAZ, as the Soviet-era car is widely called in Russia. An eyewitness who worked in a nearby store said: ‘It was about 3 pm when the driver from the 2106 VAZ left a husky puppy inside the car. The puppy went mad and managed to pull the wires which led to the engine’s ignition. ... (Read more)
Siberian Times
Turkey: 8,500-year-old footprints rewrite İstanbul’s history
Archeologists had thought that the history of İstanbul began 2,700 years ago, but 8,500-year-old footprints and graves discovered during excavations along the Marmaray subway route are forcing a rethink of the city’s timeline. … (Read more)
Today’s Zaman
Spain: Spanish team finds hidden ’tomb of Jesus’
Spanish Egyptologists have discovered what could be one of the oldest images of Jesus Christ, painted on the walls of a mysterious underground structure deep in an ancient Egyptian tomb. ... (Read more)
The Local
Kazakhstan: Samsung Galaxy explodes in child’s pocket in Kazakhstan
A Samsung Galaxy S2 has exploded in a first grader’s pocket in Astana causing substantial burns … The girl was playing outside on April 21 when the phone suddenly exploded in her pocket and her jeans started burning. ... (Read more)
Tengri News
South Africa: Sewage Lands On Lunch
One Soshanguve resident got a rude surprise for lunch.
Koketso Mabunda of Soshanguve’s Block M was enjoying lunch under a tree in his yard a loud explosion sent sewage spewing out of the ground - and onto his plate.
Mabunda - and his lunch - are the latest victims of blocked drains in the township about 25 kms north of Pretoria. He says these kinds of bursts happen often, and that he and his neighbours are tired of reporting the same thing all the time. Residents say that block drains frequently send human waste, and ... sanitary pads gushing out onto the ground - sometimes near the Tipfuxeni Primary and Tiyelelani Secondary schools. ... (Read more)
All Africa
Japan: Genichiro Takahashi: Clutching at happiness in a ‘singles society’
Late in his life, my father moved back to his childhood home after his grandmother and sisters, who had been living there, all passed away. Living alone in the old house, he was twice diagnosed with cancer and eventually hospitalized.
While in hospital, he summoned me and my younger brother to a small Chinese restaurant nearby and told us what he wanted us to do after his death. Having accomplished that mission, he said, “Now that I’ve got this load off my mind, I can die in peace.”
My father died two months later. His passing was sudden, and nobody was with him in his final moments.
At his wake, my brother handed me a notebook he had found among our father’s effects. The last entry in the notebook was dated two days before his death. It contained a list of more than 10 women, whom I presumed my father had dated in his past. They included a Chinese woman in the former Manchuria, where he had lived as a young man. … (Read more)
Asahi
*Image of an exhibit at the Archaeology Museum in Istanbul, Turkey, via Shutterstock
