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THE BEST OF THE LOCAL 2011

BARACK OBAMA

The Local’s top five offbeat stories of 2011

After a huge year for dramatic news, The Local has collected together five stories from our 2011 ‘Offbeat’ archive that may have slipped through your news filter.

The Local’s top five offbeat stories of 2011
Photo: DPA

2011 will doubtless go down in history as a seismic year of toppling dictators, cracks in the eurozone, nuclear disasters and the death of Knut the Berlin polar bear. But in the bewildering blizzard of big news, you may have missed some of the odder stories of the year, faithfully covered in the Local’s ‘Offbeat’ section.

1) There’s nothing that’ll put you off your food better than an aperitif of Nazi propaganda to go with your starter:

Nazi papers welcome biathlon guests

Guests attending the opening of the 2011 World Biathlon Championships in Siberia got a surprise when they found Nazi propaganda among the hors d’oeuvres at the reception.

2) Whatever happened to the mysterious English speaker from the woods of Berlin?

Mystery English-speaking boy emerges from forest

An English-speaking teenager who walked out of the forest near Berlin told police he had been living in the woods for five years with his father, but had no idea who he was or where he came from.

3) Ah, the subtle and sensitive German sense of humour:

Blackface billboard sparks outrage

German comedian Martin Sonneborn is well-known for jokes bordering on the tasteless. But a satirical political billboard of him posing in blackface makeup as US President Barack Obama is sparking outrage.

4) Some would say the German postal service had it coming:

Crappy correspondence confounds Munich

Accusations that Deutsche Post’s service is crap have been taken to the next level. Police say someone in the Munich area has been shoving poop into postboxes for months, clogging up the letter sorting system.

5) The German legal system stinks, especially if you live near a farm where the pigs have a pungent penchant for onions:

Oniony pig farts legal, rules court

A court in the northern German town of Osnabrück has ruled that a farmer is allowed to feed his pigs vast quantities of raw onions, despite complaints from neighbours about their eye-watering gaseous emissions.

The Local/bk

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ANIMALS

Coronavirus: Four lions test positive at Barcelona zoo

Four lions at Barcelona Zoo, three of them older females, caught Covid-19 last month but suffered only mild symptoms and have since recovered, the Catalan animal park said.

Coronavirus: Four lions test positive at Barcelona zoo
File photo of lions in a zoo: AFP

Their keepers were tipped off when they noticed “mild respiratory symptoms” among three 16-year-old females and a four-year-old male, a zoo statement said.

The symptoms emerged as two of their keepers tested positive for the virus.   

“The four lions were tested with the viral antigen detection kit… and were found to be positive,” it said, indicating the diagnosis was confirmed by PCR tests.

They were immediately treated with anti-inflammatories and closely monitored under a protocol similar to that for the flu, and “responded positively”.

“At no time were the lions seen having difficultly breathing or other respiratory issues, and all symptoms disappeared within a fortnight, apart from coughing and sneezing,” the zoo said.

To avoid catching the virus, the keepers wore FFP3 masks, plexiglass visors and protective footwear, and they were lowered into the enclosure in a halter.   

The zoo also contacted “international experts such as the Bronx Zoo veterinary service in New York, the only one to have documented a case of Sars-CoV-2 infection in big cats,” it said.

In early April, a four-year-old female tiger at the Bronx Zoo tested positive for Covid-19, likely contracting it from a keeper who was asymptomatic at the time.

Since the start of the pandemic, cats, dogs and various other animals have tested positive for Covid-19 but until now, minks are the only animals proven to both contract the virus and pass it on to humans.

Several countries have ordered the mass culling of their mink populations, notably Denmark where more than 10 million have already been killed.

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