UK-Odd Summary

UK-Odd Summary
Latvians seeking free Christmas trees anger rangers RIGA (Reuters) - Latvian authorities have given residentssomething to cheer about when they invited them to cut theirown Christmas trees for free -- only to be chased away byforest rangers. A Riga forestry agency said on Wednesday astate body had invited residents to cut their trees fromforests located 50 km (30 miles) or more outside the capital,but people had instead descended on protected areas around thecity.
China fines runners out of respect for sponsors
BEIJING (Reuters) - China has punished four of its athleteswho failed to properly display a sponsor's trademark on theirchests while running in the Beijing Marathon in October. TheChinese Athletic Association (CAA) fined men's runner-up RenLongyun 10,000 yuan (666 pounds) in a decision made out of"respect for the sponsor", it said on its Web site(www.athletics.org.cn/)
Computer programme fakes chatroom flirting
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Internet chatroom romantics beware: yournext chat may be with a clinical computer, not a passionateperson, trying to win your personal data and not your heart, anonline security firm says. A Russian website calledCyberLover.ru is advertising a software tool that, it says, cansimulate flirtatious chatroom exchanges. It boasts that it canchat up as many as 10 women at the same time and persuade themto hand over phone numbers.
Candidate secretly sniffs out voters
JECHEON, South Korea (Reuters) - If South Korean votersthink they can scent victory when they go to the ballot boxnext week, they are absolutely right. A team of supporters ofpresidential frontrunner Lee Myung-bak has been secretlyspraying a perfume called "Great Korea" at his rallies.
FIFA says bionic ball a big hit in Japan
TOKYO (Reuters) - A new "bionic ball" being tested at theClub World Cup in Japan could soon be a regular feature at FIFAtournaments, its developers said on Thursday. The technology,involving magnetic sensors that determine if the micro-chippedball has crossed the goal line, has worked well so far,according to co-designers adidas and Cairos.
Pregnant? Backache? Thank evolution
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Pregnant women may stand out a mileaway with their characteristic backward-leaning stance, butthat clumsy-looking position is a unique adaptation thatevolved over millennia, anthropologists said on Wednesday.Pregnant pre-humans appeared to have stood the same way. And itmay save women from even more back pain than they already have,the researchers report in this week's issue of the journalNature.
Maradona wants tattoo of Chavez
BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Argentine football great DiegoMaradona wants to add an image of Venezuelan President HugoChavez to his well-known collection of tattoos of leftistleaders. "I'd like to get some sort of Chavez tattoo, really,"Maradona told reporters on Wednesday ahead of a celebrityindoor football match.
Sting in the tail for ant aphrodisiac scheme
BEIJING (Reuters) - A Chinese company that raked inbillions of yuan raising ants to make an aphrodisiac tonic hasfiled for bankruptcy, an official Web site said. Thousands ofangry investors took to the streets of Shenyang, capital ofLiaoning province, last month to demand help getting theirmoney back from Yilishen Tianxi Group, besieging governmentoffices and disrupting traffic.
China court orders baby mix-up pay-off 21 years on
BEIJING (Reuters) - A Chinese hospital has been ordered topay 500,000 yuan (33,000 pounds) to two families 21 years afterthey took home the wrong newborn babies, state media reportedon Thursday. A woman surnamed Pan, who gave birth to twin boysat a hospital in Beijing in 1986, watched as her "sons" becameless alike as they grew older, the Beijing Youth Daily said.
Icelandic teenage caller tricks White HouseREYKJAVIK (Reuters) - A teenager says he convinced theWhite House he was Iceland's president and managed to schedulea call with George W. Bush but was found out before he got totalk to the U.S. president. "My call was transferred around afew times until I got hold of Bush's secretary and managed tobook a call meeting with Bush the following Monday evening,"Vifill Atlason, 16, told Reuters.