Watercooler Stories

White racists hire black DJ

LONDON, Dec. 6 (UPI) -- Members of the British National Party, a notoriously racist group, inadvertently hired a black man as a disc jockey for their Christmas party.

"There was a bit of a cock-up," said a BNP spokesman. "The chap who booked him didn't realize. The DJ sounded white on the phone."

The Christmas party was held by the BNP's Central London branch at a center city hotel and drew BNP London mayoral candidate Julian Leppert and Euro spokesman Chris Roberts.

Another BNP spokesman downplayed the incident, the Daily Mirror reported Monday.

"What's the problem?" asked Dr. Phill Edwards. "No one expressed any ill-feeling towards the DJ. They didn't insult him or pick on him. Some walked out -- but so what? It's a free country. If we want a white DJ, that's our choice. Other ethnic groups help each other, so why shouldn't we?"

In this year's local and European elections the racist group won 900,000 votes.

Texas town gets offers for Jesus figure

EAGLE PASS, Texas, Dec. 6 (UPI) -- A dentist and several churches have asked for a plastic statue of Jesus Christ that was found floating in the Rio Grande in August near Eagle Pass, Texas.

The churches believe the statue should be donated to them and the dentist, a devout Roman Catholic, wants to share it with a prayer group at his ranch, the San Antonio Express-News reported Monday.

City officials in Eagle Pass will decide Tuesday what to do with the life-size fiberglass figure. The city has to dispose of unclaimed property after 90 days.

Police Chief Juan A. Castaneda said the statue, which is informally called "The Jesus Christ of the Undocumented," has attracted more than 3,000 of the religious faithful to the police department since it was found Aug. 31.

Border Patrol agents who first spotted the figure from the air thought it was a body and launched a rescue effort.

Test shows U.S. students trailing in math

WASHINGTON, Dec. 6 (UPI) -- Test results released in Washington Monday indicate U.S. 15-year-olds are performing below the international average in math and problem solving.

Of the 41 countries involved, 39 were used for comparisons. Twenty-three countries scored better than the United States in mathematics literacy and 25 performed better in problem solving.

Finland, Korea, Canada, Hong Kong-China and Japan made up the top five in that order.

The test by the Program for International Assessment, known as PISA, was given in the spring of 2003. It assesses the abilities of 15-year-old students from 41 countries to apply what they have learned in school to real-life problems.

"Mathematics plays a central role for the success of individuals and societies so most countries attach a great importance to securing high performance standards in mathematics throughout their education system," the report said.