Sweden: Swedes implore Chinese: ‘We are not Swiss’

Fed up with being mistaken for Switzerland by the Chinese, Swedish authorities have launched a competition in China to tease out humorous ways to keep the two European countries apart.

Swedes invented cheese with big holes and world-famous chocolate, while the Swiss invented the monkey wrench and the ball bearing.

Or did they?

Nope, Swedes invented the monkey wrench and while the Swedes have Västerbotten cheese and Marabou chocolate, neither are of noteworthy fame beyond Swedish borders. …

The Local

Scotland: Tea and beer combined in new drink

A special beer infused with tea has been developed by a couple of businesses, combining two of Edinburgh’s favourite tipples in one bottle.

The collaboration between Eteaket and Barney’s Beer could see afternoon tea continuing into the wee small hours, but non-drinkers need not feel left out, as the canny developers have also come up with a beer-flavoured tea.

Sarah Chanter, 28, general manager at Eteaket, said it took months of experimenting to devise the brews. …

Edinburgh Evening News

Chile: Chile’s Torres del Paine park named ‘8th Wonder of the World” by VirtualTourist

VirtualTourist announced that after more than five million worldwide votes, Turismo Chile’s entry of Torres del Paine National Park has been named the “8th Wonder of the World”.

 Earlier this year, VirtualTourist declared it was on the hunt to identify the 8th Wonder of the World through site visitor votes. Torres del Paine, a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve known for its lakes, glaciers, waterfalls and granite towers, was chosen out of more than 300 entries from over 50 countries. …

Merco Press

Finland: French metal fan walks 3,500km for a beer with Finnish band

Sonata Arctica’s keyboard player Henrik Klingenberg got a shock when he opened the front door to find Jordan Langlois knocking. The French metal enthusiast had travelled 3,500 kilometres on foot to see his favourite power metal band.

Langlois’s journey started 140 days earlier, when he knew just two Finnish towns: Helsinki, the capital, and Kemi, the hometown of Sonata Arctica. For the last few days he has been in Alaveteli, in Kruunupyy, where Sonata have been recording for the past five weeks.

“A lot of people ask if I’m crazy,” says Langlois. “But I just wanted to do something different. When you’re walking you see things differently. And I’ll tell you a secret: I hate walking.” …

YLE

Brazil/Colombia: A new brand of bean

Enticed by espresso and lured by lattes, more Brazilian and Colombian consumers are waking up to the aroma of top notch coffees their farmers have traditionally produced for the cafés and grocery shops of developed nations.

Trendy chains like Starbucks, brands like Juan Valdez that represents Colombian growers and in-home espresso machines marketed by Nestle are some of the pioneers transforming the coffee consumption habits of the two countries’ combined populations of nearly a quarter billion people.

Their more demanding and experimental consumers are adopting lifestyle habits of developed countries, after a decade of economic prosperity in the two countries that grow 40 percent of the world’s coffee and most of the best beans. …

Buenos Aires Herald

France: Drunk youngsters steal a llama from a circus and take it for a ride in the tram

On Thursday morning in Bordeaux, France, they sneaked in and stole the furry animal from a circus.

If you witnessed a llama – yes a llama ! – getting on the tram on Thursday morning in Bordeaux, you do not need to worry: this is not necessarily a hallucination and may have nothing to do with too much drinking of that wonderful red wine the city is famous for worldwide. …

Sud Ouest

Israel: Israel to build wall along Jordanian border

Decision to build border fence coincides with approval of construction of almost 2,000 settler homes in occupied areas.

Israeli government has decided to build a security fence on the the border with Jordan, a report said, angering Palestinians ahead of talks with US Secretary of State.

The report published on Sunday by Israeli newspaper Maariv said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will have the construction started “immediately upon the completion of the fence on the Egyptian border”. …

Aljazeera