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A week in which dinos got decapitated, Zumba classes were dismissed and a $1-million bill didn’t pass
HUNTING Australian police, for vandals who hacked off and stole the heads of three dinosaur statues. The fibreglass Velociraptor statues were on display at Canberra’s National Museum of Dinosaurs, the BBC reported. Museum supervisor Mitchell Seymour told the Canberra Times that kids were asking their parents: “‘Mum and Dad, what’s happened to the dinosaurs?’”
COPYING Images of national landmarks on Polish passports. That might be uncontroversial, but the landmarks are in formerly Polish cities that now lie within Ukraine and Lithuania. Those two countries are protesting what they see as a kind of claim to former Polish territories lost in the shifting frontiers of our last, violent century. The passports are to debut next year.
IGNORED Avocado, by most British people over 40. The Daily Telegraph reported the surprising findings, amid a climate where the fruit is in short supply, has seen price hikes and has become a trendy spread in cafes. A nationwide study by Westfield, How We Shop Now revealed that only 16 per cent of over-40s had ever experienced the ups and downs of eating an avocado.
SHUTTING DOWN Zumba in Iran. Four boys and two girls were arrested for teaching dance moves including Zumba. The Guardian newspaper reported that they were accused by the Revolutionary Guards of teaching western dances and publishing videos on social media apps. They were charged with dancing and failing to wear proper hijab.
GATHERING Unused female condoms in Uganda. The country has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars buying more than a million of the condoms. But they’ve proven unpopular, especially among sex workers, the Guardian reported. Meanwhile a local newspaper reports there is a shortage of 150 million male condoms.
FORGING U.S. currency, by a man charged with drug possession in Iowa. Specifically, he presented a $1-million bill. The 33-year-old allegedly tried to deposit it into a Sioux City branch of Northwest Bank. When police came, a baggie fell out that was as suspicious as the bill. The U.S. Treasury has never produced such a bill (though we can guess who’d be on it).
SUPPORTED The former head of Egypt’s Library of Alexandria. The conviction of Ismail Serrag Eddin, director of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, and his three-year prison sentence have sparked a backlash. More than 150 signatories, including former Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa, expressed support. Edin was convicted of squandering about $1.4 million (Cdn.).
BUILDING UP A university in Zimbabwe dedicated to … yes, him. For President Robert Mugabe, 93, the university is a fitting tribute, said Jonathan Moyo, minister of tertiary education. The school will be about 35 kilometres from Harare, the BBC reported. The Robert Gabriel Mugabe University will focus on science and technology.