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Bizarre but true stories about real people collected by syndicated columnist Chuck Shepherd.

In Nagano, Japan, in February, five disgruntled Buddhist monks (along with four clerical workers) at the Zenkoji temple formed a labor union that was certified by the National Confederation of Trade Unions, to combat what they say was harassment by the head monk regarding working conditions.

The latest product for routine U.S. outsourcing is sperm, according to a November report by Wired.com. In a program established by the highly regarded Dr. Sanford Rosenberg of Richmond, Va., a potential father's sperm is shipped to a lab in Bucharest, Romania, to fertilize eggs of local women, with the resultant embryos frozen and returned to the United States for implanting in the mother, at about half the domestic price for the procedure.

Least Competent Criminals:
--Matthew John Wyman, told to recite the alphabet at a roadside DUI stop in West Roxbury, Mass., in November, asked the officer if he could please substitute a math problem instead (Answer: No).

--Frank Traina's attempted armed robbery of a Chinese restaurant in Levittown, N.Y., in December went awry when the owner realized that Traina's realistic-looking gun was leaking water from the barrel.

--In December, Auckland, New Zealand, police arrested the man who had robbed a bank but then, disappointed at the size of the loot, had telephoned the bank manager and ordered him to stand out front with more money, which he would grab on a drive-by. (The robber never showed up, but police traced the phone call.)
(Send your Weird News to Chuck Shepherd, P.O. Box 18737, Tampa FL 33679 or WeirdNews@earthlink.net or go to www.NewsoftheWeird.com.) NEWS OF THE WEIRD