Odd News

Here are one writer's choices for the top jazz recordings and reissues of 2003.

In its latest attempt to develop space tourism, Russia is offering a pair of newlyweds a cosmic honeymoon on board the International Space Station.

An average homeowner spends some 25 minutes a day looking for things -- that's the equivalent of wasting nearly a week each year just trying to find stuff in their own home.

Today is Tuesday, Dec. 30, the 364th day of 2003 with one to follow.

Scotland embarks on ancient Hogmanay ... Celebrities to voice Moscow subway system ... 50-foot python caught in Indonesia ... German psychiatrist says cannibal not nuts

NEW YORK, Jan. 1 (UPI) -- The Metropolitan Opera has staged two 19th century operatic rarities this season in the hope of bolstering ticket sales at one of the company's most difficult times financially since the Great Depression, the most recent staging being Hector Berlioz's com

KASSEL, Germany, Dec. 29 (UPI) -- A German psychiatrist testified that a self-confessed cannibal who videotaped himself eating his victim is not mentally ill, the BBC reported Monday.

CURUGSEWU, Indonesia, Dec. 29 (UPI) -- Villagers on the Indonesian island of Java have caught alive a python that is almost 50 feet long and weighs nearly 1,000 pounds, The Australian reported.

NEW YORK, Dec. 29 (UPI) -- Broadway shows are determined to survive the post-holiday theater-going slump in January and February by slashing their ticket prices, often making it cheaper to see a show on the Great White Way than off-Broadway, where tickets traditionally are more con

TAIPEI, Taiwan, Dec. 29 (UPI) -- Taiwan has had a bad month for the Miss Taiwan pageant, with one in serious debt to a loan shark and another with a resume as a bar flirt.

The jazz world said farewell to many of its performers and supporting figures during 2003. So many, it departed that it seemed there would be a surge on the perpetual jazz big band -- wherever it lives on.

MOSCOW, Dec. 29 (UPI) -- Managers of Moscow's subway system will experiment using Russian celebrities to announce stops instead of robotic voices, the Moscow Times said Monday.

For those trying to unload unwanted holiday gifts, the new Web site LiveDeal.com is an alternative to long lines at the mall.

A pet cat was reunited with its family after being lost for two months in the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

Today is Monday, Dec. 29, the 363rd day of 2003 with two to follow.