SIDELINES...

LOTTO LUCK

Idaho resident Orlene Peterson won $300,000 in the state lottery – and the very next day, snagged a $200,000 prize in the same contest. The odds of winning these amounts on two successive days are estimated at 1 in 282.5 million. edition.cnn.com, 8 Feb 2021.

SLEIGHING THE DEAD

Site managers at the former Nazi concentration camp Buchenwald, now a memorial to the 56,000 inmates who were killed there, have criticised visitors for taking sledge rides over mass graves. “Cases of winter sports near mass graves, disturbing the peace of the dead, will be reported,” the Buchenwald website warned. “Because of the pandemic, winter sports facilities are closed in the Thuringia region, so they are using the memorial,” explained historian Rikola-Gunnar Lüttgenau. “Unfortunately more and more people have been disrespecting the place, horse-riding or riding motorbikes.” BBC News, 15 Jan 2021.

RELEASE THE BEARS

A Kurdish animal rights charity organised a ceremony to celebrate the release of six Syrian brown bears into the wild. The animals, once captives in peoples’ homes, were taken in cages to the mountainous Gara region of northern Iraq where they were to be given their freedom. Unfortunately, the panicked ursines turned and charged at a crowd of terrified spectators, forcing people to run for their lives. The bears eventually lumbered off into the snowy landscape of Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq. It is not known whether anyone was injured. news.com.au, 13 Feb 2021.