QUIRKY WORLD ... Our daily look at some of the world’s stranger stories
They look like shelters for hikers in a national park, but new wooden sheds in Switzerland have a rather less innocent purpose — they provide a discreet location for men to have sex with prostitutes.
The drive-in “sex boxes” will be officially opened on Monday as part of a drive by authorities in Zurich to regulate prostitution, combat pimping, and improve security for sex workers.
The nine garage-style structures, located in a former industrial zone in the west of the city, have been organised with typically Swiss precision.
Drivers will have to follow a route along which up to 40 prostitutes will be stationed.
Once they have chosen one of the women and negotiated a fee, they will drive to one of the wooden sheds, which are hung with posters advocating the use of condoms and warning of the risk of Aids.
The family of a US Second World War pilot who traded his prized gold aviator’s ring with a fellow PoW for some chocolate bars has got it back after nearly 70 years.
The ring arrived last week at the North Carolina home of his son, returned by a German man whose American neighbours used the inscription and Google to help track down the late David Cox’s family.
His bomber was shot down in 1943 and he traded the ring in 1945, not long before his liberation. The man who returned the ring said his grandparents got the ring from a Russian soldier, probably in exchange for room and board.
A restaurant ordered to pay compensation for attacking a customer added insult to the diner’s injury — by giving her the payout in 100,000 coins.
Wu Qian and her husband were attacked by staff when they complained about poor hygiene at a restaurant in Kunming, Yunnan Province.
A court told the restaurant to pay the couple 68,000 yuan (€8,300) in compensation, but when the couple arrived at the restaurant to receive their money, they got another shock.
The pair were handed 10,000 yuan of the compensation in eight enormous bags filled with a total of 100,000 coins — weighing 400kg.
Further to her ordeal, Wu was then forced to call all of the banks in the city to find one that was willing to take and exchange the coins.
It was only the Industrial and Trade Bank of China who was able to deal with the coins — but had to designate a team of 18 staff to count them.
New textbooks for schoolchildren are littered with mistakes, such as words written with a “c” instead of an “s”, too many commas, not enough accents, and at least one city in the wrong state.
The foul-up is a national embarrassment in the middle of a planned overhaul of the country’s much criticised school system. Teachers are getting a correction sheet to try to amend at least 117 mistakes the Education Department acknowledged it found only after 235m textbooks had been printed.
“It’s unfortunate these things happen,” said Consuelo Mendoza, president of the national parent teachers’ association.
All kinds of animals and birds have made the news after causing havoc by wandering on to roads, but none of them seem to do it as consistently as ducks.
This time, 50 birds were filmed on the A3 in Milford, Surrey, slowly waddling along while being escorted by a policeman on a motorbike. Unsurprisingly, the incident led to a build-up of traffic.
A police spokesman said an officer had helped to herd the young ducks to safety. He said: “A police officer attended and found around 50 young ducks waddling down the road. With the help of a local resident and some corn, the ducks were herded to safety.”
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