SANTA
Given the Sack

A British Santa Claus has been punished for being too nice, and received a different type of sack for spending more than the strict 30-second time limit set by his employers. The legendary figure at the Santa Land exhibition in London attracted kids so much that they ended up spending a long time in the queue during the £17.50 session with him. Dreamtime Events terminated his services for spending around 10 minutes with each family.

FEELING
  the Heat of Litigation

A warning that consumers should not use a heat gun that produces temperatures of 1,000 degrees as a hairdryer has won an anti-lawsuit group’s award for the wackiest label of the year. The Wacky Warning Label Contest, in its ninth year, is conducted by Michigan Lawsuit Abuse Watch as part of an effort to show the effects of lawsuits on warning labels.

ASHES TO ASHES,
Death to Death

The mayor of a Brazilian town is trying to introduce a law making it illegal for residents to die. Mayor Roberto Pereira da Silva, of Biritiba-Mirim, invented the idea because the town’s only cemetery is full. His proposal to the town council asks residents to ‘take good care of your health in order not to die’ and further warns that ‘infractors will be held responsible for their acts’. We are still wondering how.

MOBILE
Summons

South Korea has begun sending indictments and other legal notices to people through their mobile phones instead of ordinary mail in a move designed to save time and money, and enhance privacy. The notices are sent via mobile phone on a trial basis beginning January this year, and full service will begin within the first half of next year. Prosecutors expect to save the equivalent of about S$260,000 a year by shifting to this new service. About 80 per cent of South Korea’s 48 million people own mobile phones, according to its Ministry of Information and Communications