BBC: 'Borat' anthem played at Kuwait medal ceremony for Kazakhstan winner

Vince Bucci / Getty Images Borat Sagdiyev, played by actor Sacha Baron Cohen, attends a "book signing" in 2007 in Los Angeles. By msnbc.com staff and news services Kazakhstan's shooting team demanded an apology after a spoof national anthem from the comedy film "Borat" was played instead of the real one at a medal ceremony in Kuwait,...

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Pictures: Bird Mummies "Fed" After Death, Stuffed With Snails

Wrapped in linen, this so-called sacred ibis—a hatchling housed at Montreal's McGill University—provided some of the first evidence that ancientEgyptians sent animal mummies on their final journeys fully fed, a new study says. CT scans of the 2,500-year-old bird, one of four specimens used in the study, show that its...

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Pictures: Shark Swallows Another Shark Whole

A shark has been caught on camera making a meal of another shark along Australia's Great Barrier Reef. Released earlier this month, the pictures show a tasseled wobbegong halfway through swallowing a brownbanded bamboo shark. Daniela Ceccarelli and David Williamson, from Australian Research Council's Centre of...

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Leap Year 2012: Why We Need February 29

Wednesday, February 29, marks leap day—an extra 24 hours that gets added to the month of February roughly every four years—that is, every leap year—to keep the modern calendar in line with celestial cycles. But where did leap year come from? How does it work? And have other cultures with their own systems for tracking time needed to...

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The Unauthorized Biography of the Easter Bunny

KEVIN LAMARQUE/Reuters /Landov He Can’t Even Cover the Whole World! Say what you will about Santa Claus, but at least he’s delivering presents the world over. The shiftless Easter Bunny outsources egg and candy distribution in various parts of the globe. Swiss children have to make do with a cuckoo, rendering Easter no more special...

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When you're allergic to water, walking in the rain is miserable

  A few years ago, Dr. Alan Baptist, associate program director for allergy and immunology at the University of Michigan, faced one of the toughest allergy cases imaginable. A young woman came to seek his help with migraine-like pain. Every time she came into contact with water she suffered headaches, along with reddish welts...

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Roommate Stabbed Over TV Volume In Manchester, N.H.

  MANCHESTER, N.H. -- An elderly New Hampshire man is accused of stabbing his 81-year-old roommate in an argument over the volume on their television. Manchester police say they were called to the apartment late Thursday night, where they found the victim holding a bloody cloth to his chest. Police say the victim was taken to...

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Porn Actress As Prom Date: Megan Piper and Emy Reyes Can't Accompany Mike Stone To Event

  OAKDALE, Minn. -- A Minnesota high school senior who turned to the porn industry for a prom date found a couple of takers, but school administrators say the X-rated actresses aren't welcome. Mike Stone says he sent dozens of Twitter messages to Hollywood celebrities, mostly porn actresses, and received a response from two, Megan...

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Joao Teixeira de Faria Is John Of God, Brazil's So-called Psychic Surgeon

ABADIANIA, Brazil — John of God grabs what looks like a kitchen knife from a silver tray and appears to scrape it over the right eye of a believer. The "psychic surgeon" then wipes a viscous substance from the blade onto the patient's shirt. The procedure is repeated on the left eye of Juan Carlos Arguelles, who recently traveled...

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Man Saws Off Foot To Avoid Work In Austria

VIENNA (Reuters) - An unemployed Austrian man sawed his foot off, apparently to avoid being found fit to go back to work.Hours before an appointment on Monday for the labor office to check on his health, the 56-year-old man held his left leg against an electric saw in his home workshop and severed his foot just above the ankle, Austrian...

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Playing Megadeth Song Saves Boy From Wolf Attack

Despite being an endangered species, wolves in Norway face serious threats from gun-totting farmers looking to protect their livestock by way of a bullet -- but it turns out that another kind of heavy metal may be just as effective at keeping the animals away. Recently, while walking home from school, 13-year-old Walter Acre...

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