World

Around the world: radioactive coal and hidden gold coins

Plus, it’s raining feces in Germany and a British street cleaner finds a Rolex in a drain

Britain: An Essex street cleaner was surprised to find a $33,500 Rolex watch in a drain opposite a train station. He turned it in, but when he returned to the site with a TV news crew he was shocked to discovered three more valuable watches, the Telegraph reports. If the owners do not come forward he might be in the money. Will time be on his side?

France: More riches, this time from the ceiling of an outbuilding on the property of a champagne producer. Workers renovating the structure loosed a barrage of gold coins when they broke through the old ceiling plaster. It is thought the hidden hoard may have been payment from U.S. customers during the Prohibition era. Drinks on the house may be in order.

United States: A patron at a Las Vegas restaurant collapsed due to an apparent heart attack. Other guests initially thought it was a put-on, and why not? The man had been eating a “Triple Bypass Burger”; the name of the establishment is the Heart Attack Grill.

Germany: It’s not raining cats and dogs, it’s raining . . . feces? Residents in three parts of the country have been complaining about frozen chunks of human waste falling from airplanes. So far no one has been injured, although the experience has been disconcerting for some. “I was relaxing in our living room—suddenly there was a bang,” one 59-year-old woman said. “I thought our roof was caving in.”

Kyrgyzstan: The latest scandal in this fractious former Soviet republic is certainly adding fuel to the fire. Seven government officials were arrested for the importation of radioactive coal from a mine in neighbouring Kazakhstan. The contaminated fuel was shipped to schools, a nursing home and an orphanage. While scientists have said the coal is not lethal, “In some schools, radiation levels were 26 times above normal,” said one official from the Ministry of Health.

 

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