Pay the Piper

Jurgen Hass, a 56-year-old German living in Paraguay, is attempting to become the legal father of 1,000 children. According to Der Spiegel, a German news service, Hass, a former local leader of the liberal Free Democratic party, is seeking to take advantage of a 1998 Germany “paternity law, which allows men to legally recognize a child when the mother agrees and no other man claims to be the father.” His goal is to give children from underprivileged backgrounds the social benefits of German citizenship. Hass “said he had already legally recognized 300 children in Paraguay, Romania, Hungary, Moldavia, Russia, Ukraine and India.”

Eminent “I Do” main

Hindu-Muslim clashes in the Western Indian city of Vadodara couldn’t stop one couple from getting married, even when the groom couldn’t make it to the wedding. The Reuters news service reported Monday that Vadodara “was rocked by sectarian strife this week after city authorities demolished a Muslim shrine to widen a road. Six people were killed and scores injured in the rioting.” In response to the unrest, city government officials imposed curfews and armed patrols, which prevented Sufiyan Agarbatiwala from reaching his own wedding. However, unwilling to postpone the nuptials, Agarbatiwala “made the best use of the communication network and exchanged vows over the phone.”

Cinco de Mayo, Lettuce and Tomato

In the Mexico City neighborhood of Penon de los Banos, fruit was flying on Cinco de Mayo. Every year in this mostly working-class neighborhood, residents reenact an 1862 Mexican military victory of the French. Dressed as French and Mexican forces, residents square off and pelt “each other with vegetables and French-style baguettes while swigging beer and tequila,” according to the Reuters news service. When a person catches an enemy “combatant,” the “captive” is given a haircut.

The Talented Mr. …

Charles Stopford’s family hadn’t seen him in over twenty years, until they spotted a photo of him online. As it turns out, Stopford had traveled to England, and assumed an alternate identity. The Associated Press reported Monday that Stopford “is alleged to have taken the name of Christopher Buckingham, who died in 1963 at the age of 8 months, and used it to obtain documents to live as a British subject.” Stopford even went so far as to mingle among the British aristocracy, claiming to be the Earl of Buckingham, a title which hasn’t been used in over 300 years. Stopford, who is able to speak with a flawless British accent, “has two English children by a woman he is now divorced from, and all three are said to be stupefied by news that he is not the man they thought he was.”