Real Madrid Invests in Special Stadium

Real Madrid, the Spanish football club, is out on a money spinning spree. It is to build a 10, 000-seat stadium on the artificial island of Al Marjan, United Arab Emirates, UAE, half of which will be open to the sea, as well as a club museum and a residential area. It is estimated to cost the club $1billion.

Florentino Perez, president of Real Madrid, FC, disclosed the intention of the club rated as world richest. “The sports world and Real Madrid again demonstrate that the borders do not exist and that football is a fantastic tool to unite people. This is a decisive and strategic step that will enhance the strength of this institution in the Middle East and Asia, a key region in which the passion for this club has been apparent. We adhere our name and potential to a unique location, a strategic meeting place and a project of unprecedented dimension located less than four hours away by flight,’ he said.

In his company during the disclosure were Jose Mourinho, the coach, Zinedine Zidane, Real Madrid, FC legend and director.

The project may be seen as unusual for a football club, but if successful, it may set a trend across the industry as clubs try to find new ways to make money. Manchester United, for example, has a range of branded restaurants across Asia.

The club will open the 50-hectare resort in January 2015.

Joined Together By Music

Christina Davidson, and Frank Tucci, two fans of country music, will be the first to exchange wedding vows during live television coverage of the Academy of Country Music Awards, ACM, in Las Vegas, USA. This is scheduled to be done in the next ACM.

 Davidson, 31, lost her husband, Paul, in a drowning accident in 2009 when she was 29-years-old and pregnant with their second child. She founded a support group for young widows and widowers in her Washington Township hometown, where she met Tucci, 33, whose wife Danielle had died in the same year from thyroid cancer, leaving him with a young son. The pair became friends, supported each other and later fell in love. They were picked to be married on the awards due to the circumstances that brought both couple together and love for country music.

To support the marriage, Martina McBride and Train Frontman Pat Monahan, two country music singers, will perform for the couple their new song  Marry Me while the vow is being taken onstage. “When I was asked to perform Marry Me with Pat on the ACM’s, the first thought that popped into my head was, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if we actually had a couple get married live on the show while we sang the song?’ I think it’s so special that we will be witnessing the union of these two wonderful people and that we will all be sharing that moment together,” McBride said.

McBride is nominated for female vocalist of the year at the ACM awards. Kenny Chesney leads the nominations with nine, followed by Jason Aldean with six.

28 Billion  Kroner Mistake

When about 300 Danish citizens received a mail from the state owned Sweepstake that they had won more than 28 billion kroner in lotto winning, they all thought that they had become rich beyond their wildest imagination. But that hope was dashed when the agency wrote back in few hours that it was a mistaken mail.

The players received official letters from organisers of the state run sweepstake via e-mail explaining that they were each due to receive a whopping windfall of over 28 billion kroner in lotto winnings but were later informed that it was a mistaken mail.

Thomas Roersig, a spokesman for Lottery Company, said that his company was very sorry. “We have now written to them to inform them of the sum that they really won,’ he said adding that some of the lottery players were disappointed, some furious, but that most of the players took it well.

One of the affected persons, Flemming Dahl, said: ‘My heart leapt and I started thinking of all the things I was going to do with the money: take my family on holiday, buy a new house, a new car.’  Another added: ‘It’s amateurish to send out an e-mail like this, it messes with people’s emotions.’

Those who received an e-mail had actually won cash prizes of less than £100 each.

100 Years Old and Still Teaching

Gaitha Woosley, the oldest tutor in Utah, USA, is not yet ready to quit the teaching  profession at the age of 100. Woosley, also known as Grandma Butterfield at Green Acres Elementary in North Ogden, topped the century mark on Wednesday, April, 28, but said she would not slow down her twice-a-week volunteer efforts teaching children at the school to read.

Butterfield told well-wishers during the commemoration of her birthday that the key to her longevity was “just living the good life.” “I’m doing pretty great. I feel about 50 and that’s a good age,” she said.

Butterfield hopes to keep working with the Green Acres second-graders for a long time to come. “I have them read for me and I read for them. I learn a lot from them and they learn a lot from me. You learn so much when you’re reading,” she said.

Man Chops Own Leg, Roasts It

To make himself unfit to work, a 56-year-old man whose identity has not been disclosed by the police has deliberately sliced off  his ankle with a mechanical saw and thrown it into an oven.

The man, from Mitterlabill in southern Austria, then hobbled into his garage and called an ambulance. He sliced his foot off just a few hours before he was due to have a health check with the labour department on whether he was fit to work.

According to Franz Fasching, local police chief, when the police arrived, the man was still conscious but had lost a lot of blood. The police looked in the oven and was able to recover the foot. “The foot was taken to the hospital but it was so badly burnt that it could not be sewn back on,”  he said. The man was flown to hospital, where he was said to be in a stable condition.

Longest Bridal Train

The world’s longest bridal train has been unveiled. The 1.85-mile long (nearly 3- kilometre) wedding gown was billowed out over a boulevard in the Romania’s capital. The Guinness Book of World Records on Monday, April 26, recognised the item on the silk and lace gown as the longest train, beating the previous record held by a Dutch designer.

According to Lavinia Lascae, the salon spokeswoman, the bridal train took 100 days to create and was crafted by a team of 10 seamstresses. The lace was imported from France, while taffeta and other fabrics were purchased from Italy, costing a total of 24,000 lei ($7,364.48 or EURO 5,580).