Naakt fietsen in Nieuw-Zeeland niet aanstootgevend (Het Nieuwsblad ) - Naked cycling not offensive in NZ

Het Nieuwsblad - Naakt fietsen in Nieuw-Zeeland niet aanstootgevend

Or in English:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/local/3337455/Naked-cyclist-in-the-hot-seat-again


Hilarious news items about New Zealand have been appearing in the European media for quite a few years now. They are usually so weird or funny that you won't forget them. There's f.i. that story of the New Zealand 3-year-old who managed to buy a 7000 euro digger with just a few clicks from internet while his parents were still in bed. Or the article about an New Zealand couple that left their kid behind at some Australian airport and disappeared for ever. It's a bit worrying to see that I remember these stories so much better than news that is far more important to the world.

The question that has been intriguing me is: where are these news items coming from? Is someone in this country collecting them from local newspapers and selling them to big overseas media concerns? It looks like there's a big market for it. I just checked the on-line archive of the Belgian newspaper De Standaard and as I had expected most news from New Zealand was absolutely trivial and rather funny.

Here's another one who those amongst you who enjoy this sort of 'news':

De brandweer in Gisborne, Nieuw-Zeeland, is donderdag uitgerukt om een hondje te redden dat met zijn kop in een theepot vastzat.


De brandweermannen dachten op basis van de noodoproep dat ze een baby moesten bevrijden, vertelde officier Mike Milne aan het radiostation Newstalk ZB. 'Onderweg vroegen we ons af hoe we tewerk zouden gaan en maakten we de bedenking dat de baby in elk geval door de tuit van de pot kon ademen.'

Er was geen spitstechnologie nodig om de 10 weken oude mastiff te bevrijden. 'Enkele tikken met een hamer volstonden', zei Milne. De puppy had enkel een kleine snee in zijn snoet en kwispelde al met zijn staart toen de eigenaars de scherven van de pot opraapten.

English version: http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/national/3376145/Like-a-pup-in-a-teapot

As you can see both stories can be found on the website of the NZ Dominion Post. Maybe there's a 'clever' guy at Belga, who's reading this newspaper every morning for inspiration.

It would be interesting to hear from non-Belgian friends if their newspapers are also including these silly bits of news from New Zealand. So, here's some homework for you!