Wasted Daily News

KHARTOUM (Reuters) – Senior Muslim clerics have urged Sudanese youngsters to boycott Valentine’s Day, saying it is a Western institution that could lead couples astray.

Members of the Sudan Ulema Authority, an influential body of religious leaders, called on young men and women to ignore the event on February 14 and resist the temptation to mark it by taking romantic strolls in parks.

“Valentine’s Day comes from Western countries. I call on Muslims not to imitate Christians,” said preacher Sheikh Hassan Hamid in a statement released to Reuters Wednesday.

“The money that is spent on Valentine’s Day would be better spent encouraging young people to marry,” he added.

The lovers’ holiday has become increasingly popular in recent years among students and young people in the capital, with Valentine cards available in Khartoum shops. Read the rest of this entry →

TOKYO (Reuters) – A blaze broke out at a fire station in Japan this week after a firefighter left a cooking stove burning as crew members left the station to respond to emergency calls.

Most of the duty staffers were out on a call when their colleague, alone at the station and cooking dinner for the crew, was himself called out.

In his haste to respond to the call, he forgot to turn the stove off, said Seiji Hori, a Nagoya City Fire Department official. Ten fire trucks from other stations put out the fire, Hori added.

“We are an institute that should be in a position to educate people about fire, so we are extremely sorry that such an incident happened,” Hori said, adding that they would consider ordering-in for dinner from now on.

(Reporting by Yoko Kubota; Editing by Jeremy Laurence)