Odd News
Two workers arrested for digging shortcut through Great Wall of China
Great Wall of China
Chinese authorities have arrested two construction workers accused of using an excavator to dig a hole through the Great Wall in central Shanxi province, according to local reports.
The Shanxi Cultural Relics Bureau said Monday that the two people used the excavator to dig a shortcut through the 32nd Great Wall, which dates back to the Ming Dynasty of 1368-1644, in Youyu County, Shanxi province, state-run China Daily reported.
The suspects have been identified by local police as a 38-year-old man and a 55-year-old woman, according to Sina.
Local police were notified of the damage at about 4:20 p.m. on Aug. 24. After following tracks from the damaged site, officers located the excavator and the pair of suspects, who told the authorities that they dug the hole in order to create a shortcut through the ancient wall to lessen the distance the excavator had to travel for their construction work.
China Daily reports that the section of wall has been “damaged beyond repair.”
The iconic Great Wall of China was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987. According to the U.N. agency, the wall, which runs some 13,000 miles across the country, began construction in 220 B.C. and had been continuously built until the 17th Century. UPI
Odd News
Message in bottle floats from Canada to Ireland in 13 years
A message in a bottle launched by visitors to Newfoundland’s Bell Island was found washed up on an Irish beach nearly 13 years later, after apparently crossing the Atlantic Ocean.
Kate Gay said she was walking a Dingle Peninsula beach this week when she spotted the wine bottle with a sheet of paper inside.
Gay showed the bottle to members of Creative Ireland NeartnaMacharaí during a meeting at her house that evening, and they broke the bottle open.
The note, written by a couple named Brad and Anita, was dated Sept. 12, 2012. The letter described the couple’s day trip to Bell Island.
There was a phone number on the letter, but there was no answer when group members tried to call.
The Maharees Heritage and Conservation group posted photos of the bottleto social media on Monday, and within an hour group members were messaging with Anita.
Group member Martha Farrell said Anita reported that she and Brad had married in 2016 and are still together to this day. -upi.com
Odd News
Woman earns world record for collection of 15,485 egg cups
A Spanish woman who has been collecting egg cups for over 50 years earned a Guinness World Record when her collection was tallied at 15,485 items.
María José Fuster recruited two witnesses to help her tally her collection at a community center in her hometown of Campo, Spain.
Fuster’s collection includes multiple patterns, colors, designs and even novelty cups bearing the images of characters including Superman, Betty Boop and Garfield.
Fuster maintains two blogs related to her hobby — one to catalog each piece, and one to list the names of the people who have donated egg cups to her collection.
Some of her most prized egg cups, about 1,143 of them, are currently on display at a local museum.
-upi.com
