STATUS UPDATES

A week in which a hero’s legend grew and an Israeli chef didn’t adjust desserts

OFFENSIVE (1):

A shoe-shaped dessert served to Japanese PM Shinzo Abe and his wife at Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s home. Japanese and Israeli diplomats were shocked. As one official said: “There is nothing lowlier than a shoe in Japanese culture.”

FROZEN:

A busy train station in Munich. All because a drunken man spent the night on a freight train and police shut down traffic to look for him. The 25-year-old had called police, saying he was stuck in a container car near Pasing station, but too drunk to know where he was. It affected 86 trains and caused 1,280 minutes of delays.

REVIVED:

Seven dogs found unconscious in a smoke-filled Indiana garage during a house fire. The seven Labradors, two of them pregnant, were saved by first responders and neighbours, who raced to give them oxygen. They were taken to animal hospitals, and all survived.

HAILED AS A HERO:

James Shaw Jr., 29 — already hailed as a hero for wrestling a rifle away from a gunman at a Tennessee Waffle House — who has now raised more than a quarter of a million dollars for the victims of the shooting.

OFFENSIVE (2):

One of Zambia’s top universities, which urged female students to stop visiting the library “half-naked” because it distracts male counterparts. The University of Zambia, in Lusaka, put up notices, which it eventually had to apologize for.

HEATED UP:

The debate over saunas. Taking saunas may reduce the risk for stroke, say Finnish researchers. They followed study participants for an average of 15 years and found, compared with people who used saunas once a week, people using saunas four to seven times a week cut their risk of a stroke by 62 per cent.

REVISED:

Mexican electoral authorities said Tuesday they are investigating 17 male candidates who allegedly registered as transgender to avoid a gender quota in local races in the southern state of Oaxaca. Oaxaca requires gender parity in local races.

TREATED AS THE GOAT:

India’s archeologocial conservation board. It was faulted by the Supreme Court for failing to protect the Taj Mahal from discoloration, dirty feet and green slime emitted by millions of insects.