Homeless man’s bottle collection makes him rich

MOSCOW, Russia: A former homeless man turned rummaging through garbage into a stock trade. Leonid Konovalov, 63, collected over 2,000 bottles a day and invested the money he earned in the stock market. Konovalov began collecting and cashing in the bottles last year when the economic downturn hit Russia. A glass bottle typically is worth two rubles ($0.06) for recycling.

According to Reuters, Konovalov told a Russian tabloid he noticed Russians were drinking more due to the financial crisis. Konovalov said he was encouraged by his grandchildren to put his bottle money into investments. His first purchase was for a Є50,000 ($74,120) share.

Cuba prevents honouree from accepting award

HAVANA, Cuba: The Cuban government will not let a popular blogger leave the country to collect a prestigious journalism award from Columbia University in New York City. Yoani Sanchez was awarded the Maria Moors Cabot Prize for her contribution to Generacion Y, her blog on daily life and politics in Cuba. Her blog receives 1 million hits monthly and Time magazine recently named Sanchez one of the 100 most influential people in the world. CNN reports Columbia University recognized Sanchez for her work because she works with scarce resources and has to search and travel excessively to find a Cuban cyber café that will post her blogs. In May, Sanchez was given the Ortega y Gasset Prize in digital journalism by Spain. The Cuban government would not allow her to travel to collect that award either.

French nuclear physicist caught emailing al-Qaeda

VIENNE, France: A French physicist was arrested two weeks ago after it was discovered that he was emailing al-Qaeda. The man was arrested along with his brother. Police said the emails were sent to a North African branch of the terror group and vaguely discussed ideas for future terrorist acts. The physicist is a French citizen of Algerian descent and was working on the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland. The Associated Press reported the scientist was under contract with another institute at the particle accelerator location but was not working with material or equipment that could have been used for terror plots.

Abundance of bunnies useful as biofuel

STOCKHOLM, Sweden: Culled rabbits are being used as fuel in a Swedish heating plant. The capital suffers from an infestation of rabbits that destroy parks and green spaces in the city. The rabbits are not native to Sweden but are generally the offspring of domestic rabbits released into the wild by their owners. Last year, over 6,000 rabbits were culled and already 3,000 have been collected this year. The culled rabbits are then frozen and sold to Konvex, supplier to the heating plant. The company developed a way to use the rabbits as a biofuel. According to BBC News, the raw animal material is ground and sent to a boiler which combines the decomposing remains with peat and wood to produce renewable heat for homes. Criticism against the process has arisen, particularly from animal rights groups.

Published in Volume 64, Number 8 of The Uniter (October 22, 2009)