It's not easy being boring
According to a recent Marketing Centrum Internet poll, János Áder, speaker of Parliament, is the most boring politician in Hungary. The same poll named Smallholder President József Torgyán, suspected of fiddling his assets statement, the country's most colourful politician. The Prime Minister came in second in the race for colourfulness.
Wayward camel
German police said on Tuesday they had apprehended a camel on the run from a nearby circus.The camel was spotted by motorists trotting down a southbound highway towards the town of Ludwigshafen.
"The animal evidently wanted to move to a warmer climate," police said. Police used their car to drive the camel into a courtyard where officers managed to secure the animal.
Hostage drama hits Greek TV
A Greek hostage-taking incident turned into prime-time television on Saturday, when the hijacker surrendered to a TV reporter, had a drink with him and was then handed over to the police.
The gunman, who led a bus full of Japanese tourists to and fro for nine hours, after killing his mother-in-law and a neighbor, was led away by Alpha channel TV show host Makis Triandafyllopoulos for a private ten-minute conversation before escorting him to the waiting police.
"My position was very difficult," Triandafyllopoulos, who hosts the "Jungle" and "Yellow Press" news shows, told Alpha. "He is a simple man, whose honor has been hurt."
Wings over Berlin
A 27-year-old Romanian refugee survived a 23-minute flight from Munich while holding onto the landing gear of a Boeing 737. He was taken to the hospital suffering from hypothermia upon landing, police said Thursday.
While many Third-World migrants come to Europe as stowaways on planes and ships, authorities in Munich said they did not know why the man, registered as a refugee and living legally in Berlin, had tried to hop on the domestic flight. Authorities said the man, whom they did not name, had scrambled undetected onto the forward tire of the aircraft shortly before the Berlin-bound plane took off Wednesday evening and hauled himself into the gear shaft.
The pilot was unable to retract the gear and decided to abort the flight and return to Munich. He was able to land the aircraft, with 89 passengers on board, safely. The man was handed over to police in Munich, where he was being questioned.
Coathangers protest at being closeted in
Bulgaria's top models paraded in glamorous outfits straight from the catwalk in front of the French embassy on Tuesday to protest against visa restrictions on travel to the West. "Bulgaria's models are the best ambassadors of our country abroad," said Lyuben Dilov, leader of the flamboyant Georgiovden party, which organized the protest called "Pret-a-Schengen."
The name of the models' "fashion show" refers to the Schengen agreement on free travel within the European Union, from which Bulgaria and Romania have so far been excluded. Bulgarians were effectively banned from traveling abroad during the 45 years of Communist rule which ended 11 years ago. Many complain now that, after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the West has built a new wall by imposing strict visa rules.
Bulgaria has launched an increasingly public campaign against the visa restrictions, one of the most sensitive issues for Sofia, which started EU accession talks earlier this year.
Robert Salvato, 11 November 2000
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