After meeting as adults, two step-brothers who shared the same father hid their romance from the world for nine years. Now they’re making their relationship public so they can get legally married.

Ana Parra was 20 years old when she met her step-brother Daniel (17) for the first time. Her mother had told her that her biological father had started a new family and had another child, which sparked her curiosity. She looked for her father on Facebook and that’s how she discovered Daniel’s profile. She started a false account and befriended him on the social network. They started messaging each other, discovered that they had very much in common, and Ana ultimately confessed that she was his step-sister. They decided to meet in person, gradually became good friends and then that friendship grew into something more…

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A Spanish court ruled that an electrical company was wrong to fire one of its electricians for allegedly drinking more than three liters of beer on the job because it couldn’t prove he was drunk.

Drinking alcohol during work hours is usually frowned upon and can constitute grounds for dismissal, but according to a high court in Murcia, Spain, that is only true when the employer can prove without a shadow of a doubt that the accused was inebriated to the point where he could no longer fulfill his duty safely. The court recently ordered an electrical company to either reinstate the sacked worker or pay them 47,000 euros ($52,000) for failing to show that their drinking on the job left them inebriated, intoxicated or drunk”, or unable to do their job. The controversial ruling also mentioned that the company failed to consider the hot Murcian summer, which apparently justified beer consumption.

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The black thighed falconet is no larger than a sparrow, but don’t let its size fool you, as this tiny bird is a ruthless predator capable of killing prey its own size.

Falconets are the smallest birds of prey in the world, with the black thighed falconet (Microhierax fringillarius) and the Bornean falconet (Microphierax latifrons) sharing the title of smallest bird of prey in the world. With bodies only 14 to 16 centimeters long, a wingspan of 27 to 32 cm, and only a few grams in weight, the black thighed falconet certainly doesn’t sound like the most efficient predator, but its cute appearance is even more deceiving. The parakeet-like bird is one of the most adorable you’ll ever see, but don’t let that fool you when it comes to hunting, this thing is a tiny killer.

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A Thai doctor recently shared photos of a patient’s hand and the magnetic plates he had embedded in his fingers to help him cheat at a popular dice game without raising suspicion.

Dr. Wat Lun of the Wiwat X-ray Clinic-Lab in Chon Buri, Thailand, regularly shares photos of his medical cases on social media, but it was one of his most recent patients that drew unusual levels of attention on Facebook. The Thai doctor posted a couple of photos, one showing two black plates and another of the patient’s sewn fingers following minor surgery. The photos aren’t that impressive, but it was the story behind them that caused the post to go viral. Apparently, one of his patients had magnetic plates embedded in his fingertips for 40 years to help him cheat at Hi Lo, also known as Sic Bo, a popular dice game.

“You probably won’t believe it but a patient inserted magnets into the fingertips of his left-hand middle and ring fingers for 40 years. He put them there to play Hi-Lo,” Wat Lun wrote in his Facebook post.

The Thai doctor explained that the man, whose name has not been disclosed, only came in to have the magnets removed because he needed to board an airplane and he was afraid that the agents would be detected by airport security devices. His days of Sic Bo gambling were probably behind him as well, so he decided to visit a clinic.

Photo: Edge2Edge Media/Unsplash

“He came and asked to have them taken out because he wants to take a flight and is scared the magnets will set off an alarm at airport security,” the doctor wrote. “When I cut open his fingers, I found two very tightly embedded magnets.”

Popular in East-Asian countries, Sic Bo is a dice game in which players bet on whether the combination of three dice will be a high or low score. If the sum of the dots is up to 11, it is considered a low score, and anything between 11 and 18 is high. Although the exact cheating method was not disclosed, some Thai news outlets claimed that the man used the magnetic plates in combination with a small magnet in one or multiple dice to manipulate the score.

The Tokyo Shimbun newspaper recently sparked controversy in Japan with an article on consuming raw crow meat, a practice that experts say could cause serious health problems, even death.

Last month, the Tokyo Shimbun, one of the most-read newspapers in Japan, published an article on the consumption of so-called ‘crow sashimi’ (raw crow meat marinated in various sauces). The journalist basically described their experience eating crow meat both cooked and raw at a gathering of crow meat lovers in Ibaraki Prefecture, claiming that the crow sashimi was both refreshing and easy to chew, compared to the grilled meat which was extremely tough and dry. The article caused a lot of confusion online, and the Japanese Health Ministry ultimately posted a message on its official Twitter account warning people not to indulge in raw crow meat, as it could cost them their lives.

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Sułoszowa, a Polish village of around 6,000 people located in the Olkuska Upland, less than 30 km northwest of Kraków, has been dubbed ‘Little Tuscany’ because of its unusual layout.

The village of Sułoszowa has been around for many years, but it only recently started attracting international attention after bird’s eye photos and videos went viral on social media. Millions of people around the world were mesmerized by the unusual layout of the rural settlement – hundreds of houses on either side of a singular street, snaking through multi-colored agricultural fields as far as the eye can see. Every one of the 5.819 inhabitants – according to a 2017 census – lives on the same street, which stretches for over 9 kilometers.

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A 65-year-old Chinese pensioner shocked his entire nation after it was reported that he kidnapped his own granddaughter and demanded over $70,000 as ransom.

Chinese news media recently reported the bizarre case of a gambling-addicted grandfather who kidnapped his 4-year-old granddaughter and held her for ransom, asking his own daughter to pay him 500,000 yuan ($72,500) if she ever wanted to see her child again. The bizarre story, which shocked and outraged millions of Chinese, began when the man, surnamed Yuan, went to pick up his young granddaughter from school. Only instead of taking her home to her parents, the called the 65-year-old man phoned the little girl’s daughter, his own daughter, to tell her that she needed to pay him half a million yuan if she wanted to see her little girl again.

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A new board game marketed as a ‘Christian’ version of the Ouija board has sparked quite a controversy among clerics, with one priest describing it as a ‘trap from the devil’.

It sounds like a clever April Fools prank for Christians, but it turns out that the Holy Spirit Board is an actual game that anyone can find on sites like Amazon. It’s basically a Ouija board, only instead of demons, ghosts and other unholy beings, ‘this is a one-way ticket straight to heaven’ that relies on the classic planchette system to allow users to communicate directly with “our lord and savior Jesus Christ!” The layout of the planchette is similar to that of a Ouija board, only it is decorated with Christian symbols like Jesus crucified on the cross, three angels, and a dove. Oh, and instead of the triangular pendant moved on the Ouija board, the Holy Spirit Board uses a golden cross.

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Every year, visitors of Peru’s Vilcanota mountain range are treated to a unique natural phenomenon, a river running blood red through the pristine rocky valleys of Cusco.

Located approximately 100 kilometers from the city of Cusco, near the well-known Palcoyo Rainbow Mountain, the red river is known as Palquella Pucamayu by the locals. It only runs red for about 5 kilometers before mixing with other streams and small rivers in the area, at which point the color becomes diluted, losing its unique hue. The best time to see the red river in person is during the rainy season (December – April), because the color of the water is directly influenced by the level of precipitation. For most of the year, Palquella Pucamayu is a muddy-brown color, but during the rainy season, large quantities of soil rich in iron oxide are carried down from mountains and color the water bright red.

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89-year-old Seiichi Sano holds the Guinness World Record for the oldest surfer on Earth, but what makes his feat even more impressive is that he only took up the sport at age 80!

They say surfing is a young man’s game, and it’s easy to see why. The water sport requires a combination of balance, coordination, and speed, all of which decrease considerably later in our lives. Add the fact that one has to pull themselves out of the water onto the board and then into a standing position and you’ve got a sport that doesn’t really appeal to the elderly. But there are exceptions, the most notable of which is Seiichi Sano, an 89-year-old Japanese man who was recently crowned the world’s oldest surfer by Guinness Records.

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Sacculina carcini is a common species of barnacle that not only attaches itself to various species of crab, forcefully castrating males and turning them into females willing to care for and release their eggs.

Most barnacles spend their entire existence attaching themselves to underwater rocks or the bottoms of ships and just filtering food from water, but sacculina carcini has evolved into a parasite that seeks out unsuspecting crabs, usually green crabs, and becomes the bane of their existence. It all starts with a microscopic Sacculina larva that attaches itself to the most vulnerable part of the crab, the membrane at the base of one of its hairs, and injects a microscopic blob called ‘vermigon’ into the crustacean’s bloodstream. This blob then grows into a parasitic barnacle that uses its host both for protection and reproduction, often changing its sex to achieve its insidious goal.

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A farmer in India’s West Bengal state has been working on an unusual-looking house modeled after the famous RMS Titanic ship that sank after colliding with an iceberg.

Mintu Roy, a man from Bengal’s Darjeeling district, has been dreaming of living in a house shaped like the Titanic since he was a small child growing up in Kolkata. One year, during the Durga Puja festival, he was so impressed with a Titanic-shaped pandal – a temporary structure built to venerate gods during Hindu religious celebrations – that he decided to one day build his own house to resemble the iconic passenger liner. Today, at age 52, Roy still hasn’t given up on his dream and he is working hard to finish his already impressive Titanic house in Darjeeling.

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Joasia Zakrzewski, an accomplished ultramarathon runner from Australia, was stripped of her bronze medal and trophy won in a recent 50-mile race after organizers learned that she had used a car for a portion of the course.

47-year-old Joasia Zakrzewski finished third in the 2023 GB Ultras 50-mile (80km) race from Manchester to Liverpool on April 7 and even posed with her medal and trophy after crossing the finish line despite knowing full well that she had broken the rules of the competition. After analyzing GPX data, race organizers concluded that Zakrzewski had reached a speed of 35mph (56km/h) during a short section of the race, which made her faster than Usain Bolt, the fastest human in history. Upon interrogating race staff, witnesses and the runner herself, Joasia Zakrzewski was disqualified and stripped of her medal for riding in a friend’s car during the race.

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A travel agency in Argentina recently had the misfortune of being robbed twice in one day, once by a couple of aggressive robbers and then by the police officers that were supposed to catch the criminals, not copy them.

Last Wednesday, two armed robbers entered the offices of a travel agency in Buenos Aires and brutalized the staff before running off with hundreds of thousands of pesos. The victims called the police as soon as the assailants left the premises, but that proved to be a big mistake. In about 10 minutes, three police officers arrived on the scene, and after a brief interrogation of the staff regarding the robbery, they stormed off after the criminals. That’s when one of the agency’s employees noticed that a black bag containing about 4 million pesos that the robbers had missed was nowhere to be found…

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A Mexican influencer and businessman recently sparked controversy by offering to sell his embryos for $2 million each to people who can’t have children and want the guarantee of good-looking babies.

Poncho de Nigris, a Mexican television presenter, entrepreneur and influencer who originally became known nationwide after participating in the second season of hit reality show Big Brother Mexico, recently sparked controversy after claiming that he is considering selling two embryos he and his wife saved in case they ever wanted to have more children. The Mexican celebrity said that because the quality of the embryos is ‘guaranteed’ and they would be helping ‘improve the human race’, it wouldn’t be fair to just give them away. Instead, he reportedly plans to charge interested couples for $2 million for each of the two frozen embryos.

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