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Man leaves wife at home to go on holiday with dolls

BRITAIN: Dave Hockey’s wife isn't as distraught as you might expect at the prospect of him keeping other female company on holiday - because his companion is a plastic doll, reports Metro.

The father-of-two has taken ‘Bianca’ on road trips across the US and to Britain, including visits to Oxford and Stonehenge.

But the 57-year-old insisted his wife Wendy – a retired doctor – doesn’t mind.

‘She knows I’m not going to run off with a piece of silicone shaped like a woman,’ the paper quoted the husband.

Weighing 40kg (90lb), Bianca has to be moved in a wheelchair. She is one of 14 dolls on whom the owner has spent £16,000 on travel and outfits, including £1,270 of lingerie, reports the daily.
 

Man receives his death certificate

(AGENCY)

DELHI: A 70-year-old Indian man has received a photocopy of his death certificate by post. 
 
Ishwar Chand Sharma, a resident of Noida, on the outsikirts of Delhi, received his death certificate on January 14, which declared him dead as on August 18 2010.

Sharma's son filed a police complaint saying that the certificate has a seal of Registrar (Birth & Death Registration).

However, the Registration department denied having issued the certificate. Preliminary investigation revealed the document to be fake.

Investigation is on to ascertain the cause and origin of the document.
  
Secrets hot enough to warm church

(AFP)

SWEDEN: Heat from the WikiLeaks website's Swedish servers could be used to warm a local church, a proposal states.

The underground server facility in Stockholm that is home to the website's servers gives off so much excess heat that it could power the nearby Sofia Church, say reports.

"We use a lot of electricity to operate our servers, and warmth is a by-product of all that electricity," said Bahnhof CEO Jon Karlung. "The church is right above us, so we thought maybe we could help warm up the church with our excess heat."

Karlung said that heat generated by the whistle-blowing website could be given free of charge to the 105-year-old building, provided the church could invest in the necessary equipment to facilitate it.

"WikiLeaks is concerned with the truth, and there is a Christian saying about the truth and life," Karlung joked.

However, the church so far reacted coolly to the proposal.

Facilities manager Stephan Palmqvist said there were several issues about the proposal that concerned the church, including whether or not the host of the controversial website would still be in business next year.

"The question is whether or not we want to invest in something that might not be permanent. There's no guarantee that Bahnhof will be around in a year," Palmqvist said.
  
Japanese tourists beat credit crunch by sending cuddly toys away instead

(AGENCY)
 
JAPAN: Worried your finances won’t stretch to a summer holiday this year? Why not do what the Japanese do and send your teddy instead, Metro reports.

For about £60, they pack up their favourite toys and send them off to Europe for a six-day, all inclusive package tour.

Barcelona Toy Travel spokesman Daniel Bacho was quoted by the edaily as saying: ‘A lot of people from Japan - and to a lesser extent China - would love to come to Europe but just can't afford it.

'So they are opting for the next best thing and sending their stuffed toys instead.'

In return, the toys send them ten pictures and a CD with a further group of photos taken as they visit beaches, monuments, mountains and galleries, says the paper.

Stuffed toys also send postcards back home and get a Facebook profile created to chronicle what they do each day. 
 
Shocking boast of career criminal

(AGENCY)

BRITAIN: A career criminal who killed a policeman in a hit-and-run then boasted, 'one down, 500 to go'.

Stephen Benson, 25, had been asked to destroy the car for an insurance scam but mowed down off-duty officer Mike Silcock hours after taking the BMW M3, Manchester Crown Court heard, reported Daily Mail.

Benson was jailed for four years and two months after admitting causing death by careless driving on March 6, 2009, and conspiracy to commit fraud. He was also disqualified from driving for five years.

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