ABRACADABRA

Intolerance of a weird kind

Kuala Lumpur: Malaysia has revoked the permanent residency status of a Singaporean resort owner who was arrested on a charge of defiling a place of worship after he allowed Buddhists to use a Muslim prayer room. 

Syed Ahmed Alkaff, a 45-year-old Singaporean with Malaysian permanent residency status, was arrested on August 11 at Tanjung Sutera Resort in southern Johor state under Section 295 of the Penal Code for injuring or defiling a place of worship. He had allowed a group of Buddhists from Singapore to use the prayer hall for chanting. Alkaff was later released on bail. 

Cow falls thru roof to kill sleeping man

London : In a bizarre incident, a 45-year-old Brazilian man has died after a one-tonne cow fell through his roof on top of him as he was in bed. Joao Maria de Souza had been in bed with his wife Leni when the animal fell through the ceiling of their home in Caratinga, southeast Brazil, narrowly missing his wife. The cow is believed to have escaped from a nearby farm and climbed onto the roof of the couple’s house. The corrugated roof immediately gave way and the heavy animal fell eight feet onto de Souza’s side of the bed. Reports said his wife and the cow both escaped unharmed.

When Punjab didn’t leave Panesar

London: England spinner Monty Panesar has been fined for urinating in public in a state of drunkenness. The 31-year-old was ejected from a club in Brighton on the English south coast after he was seen urinating near the venue. The police were called and he was fined for being drunk and disorderly.

The Sun newspaper claimed that Panesar urinated from the promenade above the venue onto bouncers standing below. The incident happened just hours before England retained the Ashes at Old Trafford by drawing the third Test; Panesar was in the 14-man squad but did not play.The 31-year-old left-arm spinner had been partying at the Shooshh club on Brighton’s beachfront, which was hosting a Gay Pride event. However, when a group of women complained he was harassing them, Panesar was asked to leave. Panesar, born to Indian parents, proceeded to the promenade above the club and relieved himself on the bouncers standing below. The bouncers then chased Panesar until he was cornered in a nearby pizza parlour, according to the report.  The bouncers dragged Panesar back to the club and called the police. Panesar later released a statement, through his spokesperson, offering an “unreserved apology” for his behaviour. “Monty would like to apologise unreservedly for any offence caused,” the  cricketer’s spokesperson said.

The incident had Twitter in splits. Said one user, ‘‘Monty Panesar giving us proof that you can take the man out of Punjab, but you can’t take the Punjab out of the man!’’ Another had a dig at Sharad Pawar’s nephew – ‘‘Ajit Pawar just accepted Monty Panesar’s friend request.’’ A Guragon resident had this to say, ‘‘Gurgaon opens its doors for Monty Panesar. Says they plan to rope him as their brand ambassador.’’ A cricket buff felt that Panesar had completely changed the meaning single handedly ‘bowling a googly.’

Panesar, who has 164 Test wickets from 48 matches, has not been included in the squad for the next Ashes Test at Durham. His county side Sussex also dropped him this season in part due to a poor on-field attitude. Struggling with a sore shoulder, he had fallen into the habit of stopping the ball with his boot in the field and throwing it back to the wicketkeeper underarm.

 Panesar was also arrested and interviewed by the police in 2011 after a heated argument with his wife in a pub car park. He was subsequently released without charge.

25000 appeared & 25000 failed

The “epic fail” of every single candidate — about 25,000 of them — in the admission examination to the University of Liberia provoked bafflement, consternation and heated debate, with some convinced that flaws in Liberia’s education system had been brutally exposed. A government minister likened it to a“mass murder.”

The results mean there will be no freshers at west Africa’s oldest degree-granting institution — one of two state-run universities in Liberia — when it reopens next month for another academic year.

According to university officials, the applicants lacked enthusiasm and did not have a basic grasp of English. 

Spokesman Momodu Getaweh told the BBC’s Focus on Africa programme that the university stood by its decision to fail the candidates and would not be swayed by emotion. 

Forklifted to hospital

Riyadh:  20-year-old Saudi man, weighing 610 kg, was forklifted out of his apartment and flown here for treatment. On orders from Saudi ruler King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz, Khalid Mohsen Shaeri, suffering from extreme obesity, was forklifted from the second floor of an apartment building in Jazan, capital of Saudi Arabia’s Jizan province, and flown here for treatment, local media reported. Accompanied by a special medical team, the patient was taken from Riyadh air force base to the King Fahd Medical City (KFMC), where he was received by Abdulaziz Al-Humaidhi, head of the transfer process, and Mahmoud Yamani, executive director general of KFMC.