ABRACADABRA

Hearse driver stops at bar,
keeps dead man waiting
BOGOTA :A dead man’s family had to wait for hours at a cemetery in Colombia, as the hearse driver went to have a few beers, leaving the vehicle carrying the corpse outside a motel.
Relatives of Tito Vasquez, who died Saturday, as well as dozens of friends, waited for several hours at the Campos de Cristo cemetery in suburban Bogota for the hearse to arrive so that they could bury him.
The body originally had been picked up by a hearse so that it could be taken to the funeral home to be embalmed and prepared for burial, and after that it was placed in the establishment’s viewing room, where friends and relatives paid their last respects.
“But neither Tito nor the vehicle nor the conductor arrived at the cemetery” for the burial, the daily EI Tiempo reported.
Vasquez had no enemies during his life, his relatives said while they waited at the cemetery, and they could not understand why his body was not being delivered for the funeral.
In the face of the lack of an adequate answer from the funeral home-which apparently was just as mystified as to what had happened to the body- some of the relatives reported the body missing.
Police reported sameday night that the Vasquez’s body was found in the hearse in the parking lot of a motel in Bogota’s San Bernardo neighbourhood.
The hearse driver, it seems, had parked the hearse – body and all-there while he went in to EI Imperio to have a few beers.
“Still, nobody knows what the conditions were under which the body was found or what will happen to the driver, and the indemnity that the (funeral home) will pay for the damage done to the family of the deceased,” the Bogota daily said.
The burial was later planned for the next day. -EFF
Most Britons
‘like to meet Jesus’

LONDON: HE is dead but most Britons would love to meet Jesus Christ, a survey has revealed. According to the survey, most Britons have said that they would like to meet Jesus Christ, followed by the Princess of Wales, Diana, who died in a car accident in Paris in 1997, playwright William Shakespeare and physicist Albert Einstein. Interestingly, Hollywood legend Marilyn Monroe came fifth on the list, artist Leonardo da Vinci—best known for Mona Lisa- took sixth place and Elvis Presley was seventh. Author Roald Dahl, singer Freddie Mercury and activist Martin Luther King complete the top 10, the ‘Daily Express’ reported. In fact the survey was based on a poll of 3,000 people by Primeval series 3. “These results show that Jesus Christ will always be the British public’s ‘Superstar’. But we were fully expecting Princes Diana to top the poll as she won the hearts of the nation and no one has ever really forgotten her place within the Royal family or the impact she made on ordinary people,” A spokesman for Primeval 3 was quoted as saying. The poll has also revealed which era Britons would most like to visit if given the chance.
12-YEAR OLDS TO GET
CONDOM ‘CREDIT CARDS’
LONDON IN a move to cut teenage pregnancies, boys in UK as young as 12 will be issued condom ‘credit cards’ which help them learn about safe sex. Britain has the highest teen pregnancy rate in Europe and the government wants boys to take responsibility for contraception. The plan is being drawn up for the Department of Children, Schools and Families by teen sex advice service, Brook, whose chief Simon Blake said it would make condom use “an everyday reality”. With the condom ‘credit cards’, the teenagers can collect free contraception at football grounds, barbers’ shops and scout huts. This will save them from the embarrassment of visiting sex clinics or chemicals. Boys who have attended a safe-sex session will be able to collect condoms showing this plastic card. Some councils are already issuing them, but will be made available to all boys in Britain aged 13. over this year, the Mirror reported.
$19 mn space toilet
The US space agency NASA was forced to shell out USD 19 million to order a new toilet from Russia for their segment of International Space Station (ISS), after regular breakdown of the American model due to rich diet of Russian cosmonauts, a report said on Saturday.
Until recently, cosmonauts from both Russia the US were using common toilet, but for sometime the US astronauts denied access to their Russian colleague of their toilet, sparkling a ‘space scandal’ between the two former Cold War rivals.
“The US astronauts were sick and tired of toilet break downs and unpleasant odours. NASA was eventually forced to order a toilet system from Russia. US tax payers paid USD 19 million for the space toilet. The new construction was installed in the US segment of the ISS,” Pravda.ru website reported.
The Russian-made extra terrestrial toilet system does not differ much from its US made analogue. The system is designed for both men and women. Urine is accumulated in a special reservoir, in which it is concentrated with a special solution. The processed liquid can later be recycled for the crew’s requirements. The daily ration of Russian cosmonauts is wholesome more savoury, more natural and more diverse resulting in thicker “outcome”, while the US space ration, equally nutritious, but low calorie, results in softer waste and this difference could have ruined the US space toilet after visits by the Russians, the report said.