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First up, a little bit of natter from Germany. A little village in the north of Hamburg has been living in a tax-haven for the last 300 years, but now it seems the finance ministry wants to end this and change it's status of the most unfashionable tax-haven. I'm sure this really affects lots of you.
The state of Baden-Wuerttemberg is making moves to ban the wearing of headscarves by muslims in schools. Six other states are also planning to follow later on in this headwear-discrimination act. However, christian or jewish religious clothing is not to be banned. Furthermore, Hesse, Berlin and Saarland want headscarves banned in all public services. Talk about racism, this is just plain ridiculous !! Next thing we won't be able to wear t-shirts with foreign bands on, nor listen to music that isn't of the German Folkmusic type !!

Due to economic problems in Russia, the inhabitants have had to endure many things, but this last measure just went too far. Due to the extremely dry year they have had, there is a severe shortage of water in the region of Vladivostok, which has meant that people only get 3 hours of water every other day. That makes 10.5 hours of water in a week !! However, ingenious as ever, the people have managed to find a way to access more water by tapping into their radiators. That's right, once the water has finished heating the house, it is taken out for drinking, cooking, washing etc.

Next time you travel through an airport, you never know what they could be looking at as you pass through the screening area. New tests have shown they can scan through clothing to see anything hidden underneath, including your body. Of course they are being told they will have to add little fig-leaves to the image to cover up the delicate parts...

And finally, a new site has started up to inform all your friends (and enemies) when you die. All sorts of possibilities spring to mind...

Now something more personal, Alex (Cortega's big bro) came over from where he's currently working (near Frankfurt) to visit us here in Mainz and we went out for a few drinks to the renowned Eisgrub. Very welcome.

Well, that's the way the cookie crumbles...