Weird news: Man dumped by a bride; second consolation bride runs away after marriage

A man went into an arranged marriage, with a 8 month gap between the engagement and the marriage. He thought everything was going well, and into the final day, the time for the actual marriage ceremonies came up. He was happy, since now it seemed that the marriage would happen; and then the shock happened with the bride deciding that she was actually in love with somebody else (who incidentally was also present in the marriage hall). Since the groom's side was angry at this betrayal, they took their anger out on the other suitor who was present in the marriage hall and who sustained injuries in this beating.
Anyhow, the twist in the tale was that now we have a groom who is all ready to get married, but for whom the bride has run away. This is a very humiliating situation for the groom and for his family, and the family decided to find another bride at the same instant (which would bring back the lost pride of the family); they found a minor girl who was not very ready but they got her dressed up and got her married off. However, the next day this girl also ran away (link to article):

Brides being dumped at the altar is the stuff soppy movies are made of. But heard of a bridegroom being ditched at the marriage mantap, that too not once but twice inside of 24 hours? Filmi as it may sound, that's what happened in Kolar, 70 km from Bangalore, on Sunday.
Here’s where the drama restarts. The elders figured that an eloping bride was no reason to stop Manjunath’s marriage and they would look for a bride for him from among those present. They settled on Mamatha, a 16-year-old, first-year PU student and a close relative of the brideless Manjunath. Mamatha, playing outside the marriage hall with other children, was brought in and dressed up. She went through the ceremony crying as she had no desire to marry Manjunath.

German man detected stealing electricity using a meat hook, very dangerous

Overhead electricity wires can be very dangerous, since they carry electricity at high voltages, with a very high probability of death or serious injury if people come into contact with these wires. In such cases, if you consider the cases of a person who has been stealing electricity through the use of a meat hook from an overhead wire, then you can consider that the person has been literally dealing with death. And police in Germany found a man doing that for quite some time, having literally used a meat hook with an attached wire to draw electricity and thus steal the power for consumption (link to article):

German police are investigating a man for theft after he siphoned electricity off a high-voltage overhead transmission line for one month with the help of an ordinary meat hook, authorities said on Tuesday.
The 36-year old man from Sibbesse in Lower Saxony concocted the plan to steal electricity after the power company cut him off for failure to pay his bills, police said. The man attached a cable to the meat hook and tossed it onto an overhead power line. He then drew power from the transmission line to his home, located about 150 metres away.

In New York, a hearse van was towed by police even when a body was inside

Sometimes such stuff happens that can make people wonder about the timing and coincidence. A minivan was parked outside a funeral home, and a body was inside. Given that the van was used to move bodies, the windows of the van were dark so that people were not able to look inside, and police officers were not able to look inside either. Further, a placard on the windshield which marked that this vehicle was being used as hearse also fell flat, no way for the police to know that this vehicle had a body inside; and there was no driver over there also. As a result, the police towed away the minivan with the body, after all, the vehicle was parked illegally. Once the driver came to know, he finally found the vehicle in a police towing yard (link to article):

Redden's Funeral Home director Paul DeNigris said a windshield placard had fallen flat. The van's tinted windows helped obscure the white cardboard box that held the remains.
DeNigris said he was "a wreck" after discovering the van missing in Manhattan. He rushed to the tow pound, where he discreetly explained the circumstances and got the van back. He also got body to an airport in time for a scheduled flight to Miami.

Man wins a fortune just the day after his divorce

This man can truly claim that his wife brought him bad luck, since he got something that most people never get in their life time. After a long divorce that dragged on for a number of years, it was clear that the divorce was done and he was now free of his wife. As a part of the celebration, he decided to spend the evening out with friends, getting drunk and enjoying the freedom. The bus driver used his last amount of money left to buy a lottery ticket, and given the probability of lottery tickets, it is difficult to believe that something would come out of them. However, the man did win half the top prize, giving him 2.3 million pounds, enough that his wife might want to come back to him (link to article)

Kevin Halstead, a 50-year-old bus driver, spent Friday out with friends after his divorce and the next day he bought a Lotto ticket. Later, he was left stunned when he won the lottery, Daily Express reported Wednesday.
Halstead's friend said: "Kevin's divorce dragged on for a couple of years. Everything was settled on Friday so he went out and got drunk. On Saturday he decided to spend his last quid on a lottery ticket. He checked the papers next morning and saw he'd won half the jackpot."

Weird laws of France - some of these should make you smile .. Part 2

Second set of the weird laws of France ..

Between the hours of 8AM and 8PM, 70% of music on the radio must be by French artists. (one can believe this though of the French, it is a wonder that they allow music by people of other nationalities)
It is illegal to kiss on railways in France. (this must be one of the most violated laws)
No pig may be addressed as Napoleon by its owner. (What about calling the pig as the President of France)
It is illegal to take photos of police officers or police vehicles, even if they are just in the background. (Seems legitimate, but with concealed cameras and other equipment, much more difficult to stop)
It is forbidden without a cemetery plot to die on the territory of the commune. (if you die, the police come to catch you and put your body in a cell)
In Paris, it is illegal to walk with your hand up a woman’s skirt, but while you’re on the Metro you may legally touch breasts. (No word on whose breasts they’re talking about here - could be you’re allowed to only touch your own.)
In Paris, an ashtray is considered a deadly weapon. (heavy ones would be dangerous)

Weird laws of France - some of these should make you smile .. Part 1

In a region of the Rhone, it is illegal for UFOs to fly over vinyards. (And how will they catch a UFO if it does indeed do a dance over the vineyards)
In Cannes, France, wearing a Jerry Lewis mask is illegal (could one wear a mask of the President or first lady)
It is illegal to shoot Englishmen as they cross the English Channel towards France - unless they are sailing in a 'boat of war'. (if soldiers are coming for an exercise and crossing the channel, can somebody shoot them)
Paris: Any man carrying onions must be given right of way in the streets. (the smell itself would move people away from such a person carrying onions)
Paris: Criminals can apply for sanctuary in Notre Dame Cathedral and must be 'fed and watered' for up to six weeks. (must be true for a criminal seeking sanctuary then, and to ensure independence of the Church)
In France, it is against the law to sell an “E.T” doll. They have a law forbidding the sale of dolls that do not have human faces. (wow, will they really implement this law)

Weird - Chinese man eats the brain of a child to try to cure epilepsy

Anything that can do with harm or hurt to a baby or young child gets people all worked up, and the parental instinct in people with respect to their children is incredible. In such cases, when you hear of incidents such as where this man, in order to try to cure epilepsy, kidnapped a young boy, killed him, cut open his head and ate parts of the young brain in some weird concept that this will epilepsy. When caught, he tried to pretend something else (link to article):

29-year old Wang Chaoxu, who hails from the southwest Chinese village of Qixian, seems to have a nasty habit of killing children and eating their brains, believing them to be the cure for his epilepsy. 11-year old Li Xuetang disappeared one night, prompting his mother to become worried, and going so far as imploring the head of the village to make a radio broadcast on the off chance her song might see it.

It seems like incidents like this have happened before, so hopefully incidents like this will not happen again.

Grandmother ordered to wear an ankle tag for 7 weeks after selling a goldfish to a 14 year old boy

As part of an initiative to protect animal rights, it was decreed that pets cannot be sold to young children below the age of 16, unless they had been accompanied by an adult, so that they properly understand how to take care of the child. If a person flouted the role, they were subject to being fined. In one case, investigators found that a pet store was not sticking to this rule, and so they were subject to a setup where a 14 year old boy was sent to buy a goldfish. The store owners were found guilty after they sold the goldfish to the boy without any checks or controls. And they were fined, so far so good. However, what made matters different was that the owners of the store, a 47 year old man and his 70 year old mother were also ordered to do hours of community service, and the 70 year old lady was judged not able to do the community service, so was sentenced to a night curfew, attested to by attaching an ankle tag to her (what this turned out was that the granny was attached an ankle tag for 7 weeks, for selling a goldfish to a 14 year old, provoking outrage) (link to article):

"What gets me so cross is that they put my mum on a tag. She's nearly 70, for goodness sake. You would think they have better things to do with their time and money," he said. But Trafford Council in northern England defended the decision to prosecute, noting that the gerbil sold to the teenager with learning difficulties, who was also 14, was put in a cup of coffee.
The story was highlighted by a number of British newspapers. The Daily Express said it made a "farce" of Britain's legal system, adding in a front-page headline: "Proof Britain really has gone mad."

Spending 100,000 Euros to find a missing snake, which was dead all this time

Once in a while you come across stories that could make your blood boil as a tax payer, to see municipal authorities spending huge sums of money for something that may not seem to require so much money. But read the following case and wonder about else could have been done, given the situation. A poisonous snake escaped from its owner, and other people in the area are in danger. The authorities need to find the snake, and this is not a lion or tiger that can be trapped easily. Snakes are far more difficult to find, slithering into hidden places and so on. So, you had the authorities literally blocking the entire neighborhood to find the snake, while running up huge expenses; in the end, they found the snake, which was dead (link to article):

After the highly poisonous monocled cobra escaped from its container in March, fire services cleared the entire apartment block, removed all the furniture and gutted the owner's flat. They then sealed all the doors and windows of the building, so the 30 cm (1 foot) long reptile couldn't get out, and set large sticky traps to catch it, Wiebels said.
Officials finally found the snake lying dead in the rooftop apartment of its 19-year-old owner on Thursday. By that time the cost of the operation had ballooned to about 100,000 euros ($133,700). Taxpayers are likely on the hook for 40,000 euros, because an escaped snake is considered public hazard, Wiebels said.