Blini — Russian pancakes — are the traditional food for Maslenitsa celebrations. It's common to hold topical contests: who can bake the biggest blin or who can eat the most of them. Exactly this kind of seemingly harmless fun turned into tragedy on March 2nd near Ulyanovsk. A man died during a pancake eating contest at a Maslenitsa celebration in the village of Bazarny Uren'.

As the Public Health Ministry of Ulyanovsk explained, "The deceased was 51 years old and used to drink excessively. On March 1st, he celebrated his birthday. On March 2nd, he celebrated Maslenitsa: participated in a sack race, ate 3 or 4 pancakes dipping them into mustard instead of honey. Then he suddenly didn't feel well. When the ambulance came, the man was already dead. The cause of death is acute heart failure."

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The Investigative Comitee opened a case against a now-former policeman in Perm kray, who told his superiors he’s been abducted while in reality he has been drinking.

“In November of 2013 a staff sergeant from the Kungurskiy police station filed a report saying he’s been ubducted by unidentified persons who tried to blackmail him, which made him unable to come to work”, — the press release published this Thursday says.

However, an investigation revealed that the policeman actually just got drunk and “was not subject to any unlawful acts.”

The officials don’t explain whether the man had any further malicious plans or just didn’t want to go to work.

The ex-cop is now facing up to two years of jail, and he already has lost his job.

In Mezhdurechensk, a 71 year-old woman is detained for a planned attempt to steal alcohol from a supermarket. When the administrator of the store noticed the woman, she pretended to suddenly feel ill and then tried to run.

The detainee explained her actions by saying she wanted to collect some alcohol for her birthday after the pension money has been already spent, the local authorities report. As the police found out, the women came to the store when it was crowded and prepared shopping bags with the store logo in advance. She put a box of laundry detergent, two bottles of vodka and 10 towels into the bag. She then went pass the cash registers and left the loot in the storage locker.

The lady then decided to repeat the trick. She took the second bag she prepared out and put two bottles of cognac and some vermouth in it. After going past the cash registers once more and taking the first bag from the locker, she rushed towards the exit. That’s where the administrator stopped her and asked to go back. The woman pretended to feel ill, and when the administrator left to get help, tried to run. The staff had to chase her into the streets. They called the police after catching up with the lady.

The woman is charged with attempted theft.

A 54 year old man in China killed his neighbor before committing suicide himself so that he has somebody to play chess with after death, Shanghaid Daily reports.

The body was found by the neighbor’s landlady in Zhejiang province. She found the corpse while collecting monthly rent and called the police. They found evidence of strangulation on the victim’s neck, and then discovered the other man’s body in the next room. There also were two death notes and some drugs lying on the floor.

The death note said the man killed himself over family problems. He strangled his neighbor because he was afraid of going “to the afterworld” alone and not be able to play chess with his buddy.

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In the Italian city of Salerno, 52 year-old Ubaldo Citarella got fresh pastry and drinks by telling the bartender he was a member of the Camorra clan. When a tender demanded payment, the man put a gasoline can next to the doors of the establishment, hinting to a possibility of an arson.

According to The Local newspaper, the bartender soon got tired of his customer’s behavior and contacted the police. The self-pronounced mafioso was detained shortly after.

Polish company Lindner, specialising in making coffins, has been known for spicing their business up with some sexual content over the years (a killer combination, one might say). The coffin makers traditionally issue flirtatious calendars that always feature: a) coffins b) half-naked ladies c) picturesque background. The 2014 edition, however, took it up a notch - the final product turned out more titillating than ever before.

“For the fifth issue of our calendar we came back to nature, which we express with perfect harmony between Lindner coffins and natural wood, blue sea, red flowers, green fields and beauty of the female body” — the creators of the calendar say. Yeah, these guys have a way of looking at the world.

The first Lindner calendar was created in 2010. Back then, the coffin makers’ move really shocked the public, though, to be honest, the girls outfits, as minimal as they might have been, were not indecent. The story lines were really something though. Here’s for example, January 2010, as seen by the company.

Annotation to the year 2010 reads: “12 beautiful caskets, 12 fantastic girls dressed up as brides, nymphs, shepherdesses and warriors — that’s the legendary first issue of the calendar.”

Next year, in 2011, the calendars’ authors decided to take a fresh look at the prohibition times in the USA.

2012 turned out to be a topical one as well. It was the year of big football in Poland. Lindner pointed out though, that “the creative artwork on the bodies of our beautiful models, as well as the colourful caskets hint not only to Euro-2012, but also to the 12 countries we export our coffins to.” How do you like the “Russian” November 2012?

Finally, in 2013, the authors turned to surrealism. “This calendar is halfway between a dream and reality. In this fantasy world, our coffins fly towards the sky, and by touching the Universe, they prove there truly is no limit to imagination,” they claim. Some statement! The girls’ image, however, got very straightforward by issue 4 — take a look at this beauty from the May page, for instance.

In any case, it turns out coffin makers can be experts not in only wooden boxes, but in pretty girls as well.

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The robbery took place in northern Moscow, when a young mother got distracted putting her child into her car. As reported by Interfax on Tuesday, a thief swung by the car and snatched a bag from the front seat.

The woman tried to catch the robber, but couldn’t run him down. As she later explained, the bag contained stool samples of her child that she has been carefully collecting for several days, and losing them made her really sad. However, she still decided not to press charges.

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A wedding celebration in Yemen ended in a disaster after a man accidently opened fire from his AK-47 rifle while dancing to Gangam Style. Three guests were killed, one wounded. The video of the incident is available on the LiveLeak website.

The footage, shot by one of the guests on a mobile phone, shows wedding-goers dancing to the Psy hit. A man with a rifle in his hands comes to the dance floor doing the characteristic Gangam Style moves. Suddenly, there's gunfire. Three men fall down, puddles of blood form around their hands. Some of the survivors run away in panic, others try to help the wounded.

UK's tabloid The Sun clarifies that the armed man was trying to shoot into the air, but lost the grip on the gun.

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A hedgehog in Scotland got so heavy she couldn’t curl up in a ball.

The animal had to lose weight: she was given not more than a bowl of worms a day and forced to exercise.

The hedgehog was found malnourished in the vicinity of Edinburgh; after people started caring for her, she got so fat she couldn’t roll into a ball. The obese hog weighed an astonishing 2.3 kg, while the average body mass of an adult hedgehog is 700 to 800 grams, Lenta.ru reports.

Edinburgh, as the animal was named, was found last fall, weighing less than 400 grams. The staff of the Wormit Hedgehog Care Centre started caring for her by giving her large portions of mealworms and cat food. By July, Edinburgh was not able to curl up and had to be put on diet.

The menu was changed to limit the excessive food consumption. The hedgehog is now allowed not more than one bowl of mealworms a day and forced to exercise (there is no information about particular exercises or methods of forcing her to do them). As of now, Edinburgh weighs less than 1.5 kg, as she lost almost half of her weight.

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