The week's offbeat news
India's greatest gift? India has brought us yoga, chess, the concept of zero, the USB key and buttons. Now its transport minister Nitin Gadkari is about to make humanity's next big leap with a law replacing car horns with the sweet sound of the sitar, flute, tabla and violin.
“I am soon planning to make a law that the horns of all vehicles should be in Indian musical instruments,” Gadkari declared. India is home to some of the noisiest cities on Earth, with drivers and rickshaw riders negotiating its traffic-choked streets with foot to the pedal and hand on horn.
But Gadkari's daring plan does not stop there. He also wants to replace police and ambulances sirens with soothing tunes.
Mynah miracle - And what heart wouldn't melt at the story of the little Afghan girl fleeing the Taliban who smuggled her beloved mynah bird through the chaos of Kabul airport only to have to give it up when she got to the safety of the United Arab Emirates. Sanitary laws meant the bird could not travel onwards with her to France.
“She cried silently,” said the French ambassador to the UAE, Xavier Chatel, who was so moved “I promised to take care of the bird at the residence. “I won't forget her look of desperate gratefulness,” the ambassador said. This week, the bird called Juji -- whose young owner had begged Chatel to teach it French -- finally said “bonjour” in a moment that Chatel said “went straight to my heart”.
“Alia, your bird has become the embassy's mascot,” the ambassador wrote to the girl on
Twitter. “But he is here for you, and if I can, I'll take him personally to you one day.”
Sweat and cheers - Another sign that all is not lost is how tennis star Andy Murray's smelly stolen sneakers made their way home after he left them out to air under his car following a sweaty training session the Californian desert.
In a heart-twingeing twist, the Scot forgot he had tied his wedding ring to the laces.
“I tie my ring to my tennis shoes while I'm playing because I can't play with it on my hand,” Murray explained after appealing for help on social media. “Would you believe it -- ring and the shoes have come back home!” the three-time Grand Slam later reported on Instagram.
The sneakers “still smell horrific”, he added, “but I'm back in (my wife's) good books.”
Just nuts - Doctors in Lithuania removed over a kilo of nails and screws from the stomach of a man who started swallowing metallic objects after giving up drink. “We've never seen anything like it,” said surgeon Algirdas Slepavicius, adding that the man began necking nails a month ago to take his mind off alcohol.
Beam me up, Bezos - “Star Trek” veteran William Shatner is to boldly go where no 90-yearold has ever gone before when he rockets into near orbit Tuesday aboard a Blue Origin spacecraft.
And the actor is looking forward to taking the weight off his feet by floating in zero gravity. “I've heard about space for a long time. Now I'm taking the opportunity to see it for myself,” he added.