Iceland: Elves delay Iceland road-building project
Elf advocates and environmentalists have joined forces in Iceland to stop a large-scale road project that was due to take place in a region where elves are believed to live.
A judge ruled that the highway project be cancelled because there is a chance elves could be living on the barren landscape it was going to take place on.
Elf advocates and environmentalists have been doing everything they can to make the Icelandic Road and Coastal Commission change its mind about the controversial road. ...
Ice News
France: French scientists discover way to block cannabis high
Just days after Colorado became the first US state to allow recreational marijuana use, French researchers have reportedly discovered a way to reduce the negative affects of the marijuana “buzz”.
On Thursday, French scientists said their work had found that a naturally occurring hormone acts as spontaneous defense in the brain against the “high” caused by marijuana. ...
France 24
Oman: Sand, solace and the mystical pull
Bedouin legend proclaims that it is impossible not to look up once you are in the desert. You have to be there to comprehend this, as I did during my three-day, two-night trip to one of the most beautiful deserts in the world — Al Sharqiyah Sands in Oman.
I felt a mystical pull by the space all around me, experienced a fount of solitude and let my gaze go skyward. ...
Times of Oman
Spain: Madrid bans ‘dangerous’ throwing of sweets
City authorities will be keeping a close watch on the Three Wise Men at Sunday’s Epiphany parade to prevent children from being injured in the chaos caused by the offer of free candy.
Every January 5th, most Spanish towns and cities hold a ‘Cabalgata de Reyes’, a Christmas parade which sees children greet the Three Wise Men before they deliver all their gifts.
The death last year of a six-year-old Malaga boy who was run over by a Christmas carriage as he collected sweets has led Madrid mayor Ana Botella to implement cautious measures that will no doubt avoid a similar tragedy. ...
The Local
Canada: Handmade bamboo flutes destroyed by U.S. customs, musician says
A Canadian citizen and well-known musician says 13 handmade flutes were confiscated and destroyed by U.S. customs officials at New York’s JFK airport who mistook them for an agricultural product.
Boujemaa Razgui, 55, who lives in Boston, says his flutelike-instruments — 11 neys and two kawalas — are “priceless.” He made them from hard-to-find bamboo reeds sourced in Spain and Morocco. ...
Toronto Star
Japan: Calendar shows beauty, cultural heritage of Fukushima through foreign lens
KORIYAMA, Fukushima Prefecture--English teacher Ryan McDonald says that Fukushima Prefecture is beautiful, but nobody back home in the United States believes him. ...
After being inundated with post-3/11 e-mails and phone calls from friends in the United States who believe the prefecture is a dangerous nuclear wasteland, McDonald decided to do something to dispel misinformed rumors from back home. ...
The calendar, with a printing of 3,500 copies, includes photos of traditional arts, majestic scenery and the people of Fukishima Prefecture. The ALTs are sending the calendars to people around the world to spread the message that “Fukushima is about more than just a nuclear disaster.” ...
Asahi
South Africa: Internet scammers using Mandela name
The Africa Rising Foundation warned the public on Friday about an internet scam that illegally uses the name of former president Nelson Mandela’s grandson Ndaba.
“The Africa Rising Foundation does not ask the public for money in lieu of membership fees,” Ndaba Mandela, who is the foundation’s chair, said in a statement.
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News 24
*Image of Alftanes, Southern Iceland via Shutterstock
