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Journalism of Courage
Moscow flips over Clinton dolls, photos
MOSCOW: A traditional Russian-style Matrioshka nesting doll set bearing the image of US President Bill Clinton with Monica Lewinsky inside is a sellout item on Moscow’s Arbat pedestrian mall.
Sex-change operations have been covered by most of Canada’s provincial health insurance plans for years but not by the military’s health plan, which is administered separately.
Age defying love
TEHRAN: A 19-year-old youth has wed a 60-year-old woman in a village in northeastern Iran, the Tehran daily Zan has said. The bride, Sudabeh, has been widowed several times over.
The unnamed groom, who was said to have been attracted by her “kindness, good spirit and concern”, gave her a wedding present of 20,000 rials (6 dollars) and then drove her home with his Iranian-made car.
Iranian custom is for the bride to ask permission from elder members of the family before saying, “I will”. As Sudabeh was the eldest member of her family, she told thewedding guests in Khalilabad, Khorassan province, “With the permission of younger members of the family, I will,” the daily reported.
Scaring spirits
PHNOM PENH: Superstitious Cambodians here have been firing guns into the air and painting human figures on their homes to repel disease-carrying spirits after 44 people died and 400 became ill from drinking tainted rice wine, residents have said.
The health disaster sent rumours of a food poisoning epidemic through the capital, and panicked residents have been afraid to buy meat, fruits and vegetables or eat in food stalls, vendors said. At least 44 people in the city have died in recent days after drinking rice wine tainted with methanol, and a report on Wednesday said 38 garment factory workers became ill from contaminated drinking water.
Wild West in smoke
SANTA FE: The famous wild west movie town of Cook Ranch in northern New Mexico went up in smoke after a planned explosion on a blockbuster movie starring Kevin Kline and WillSmith ran out of control.
The explosion on Tuesday at Cook Ranch, a small town near here which was made for filming movies, was planned as part of a stunt sequence for the Warner Bros’ movie Wild Wild West.
But an unexpected gust of wind spread the blaze to adjoining buildings, causing far more damage than intended. “Three buildings were rigged to explode and the stunt went off without a hitch,” movie publicist Michael Singer said. “But as soon as the directors called `cut’, a sudden wind — and nature does play tricks here in New Mexico — blew the fire onto the adjacent wooden buildings”.
