Odd News Roundup: Director Spike Lee changes direction with musical about Viagra; Santa candles get masked up in Greece in COVID-19 surge and more

Sri Lankan lawmaker eats raw fish to promote sales hit by coronavirus A former Sri Lankan fisheries minister bit into a raw fish at a news conference in Colombo on Tuesday to encourage sales following a slump during the coronavirus pandemic. It is based on a 2018 article in Esquire magazine called "All Rise," producers said on Tuesday.

Following is a summary of current odd news briefs.

Tricking the taste buds: flavour makers rise to meaty challenge

At flavour maker Givaudan's innovation centre near Zurich, veteran chef Sam Brunschweiler serves up a lamb shawarma dish that looks and tastes appropriately meaty but is made from pea protein. The Swiss company and competitors such as International Flavors & Fragrances and Symrise are vying to create the tastiest plant-based meat alternatives in a market that is growing fast on the back of consumer concerns about health, sustainability and animal welfare.

Sri Lankan lawmaker eats raw fish to promote sales hit by coronavirus

A former Sri Lankan fisheries minister bit into a raw fish at a news conference in Colombo on Tuesday to encourage sales following a slump during the coronavirus pandemic. Fish sales in the country have cratered after a major coronavirus cluster emerged in the Central Fish Market in the outskirts of the capital last month.

Thieves steal $6.6 million of Apple products in UK truck heist

British police are hunting for thieves who made off with 5 million pounds ($6.6 million) worth of Apple products from iPhones to watches after tying up a driver and security guard during a truck heist in central England. The thieves targeted the truck on a slip road to the M1 motorway in Northamptonshire last Tuesday evening, tying up the driver and guard whom they left behind, before they took the vehicle to a nearby industrial estate.

Director Spike Lee changes direction with musical about Viagra

Director Spike Lee, best known for making movies about the experience of being Black in America, is switching course with a musical - on the subject of Viagra. Lee will direct the as-yet-untitled film from a screenplay he has co-written about the discovery and launch of the erectile dysfunction drug. It is based on a 2018 article in Esquire magazine called "All Rise," producers said on Tuesday.

Santa candles get masked up in Greece in COVID-19 surge

A Greek candlemaker has come up with a novel way of highlighting the need to wear a mask to curb the spread of the new coronvirus; putting them on his Santa candles. Alexios Gerakis in the northern town of Thessaloniki has made decorative candles featuring Father Christmas, with a big blue surgical mask covering his white beard.

Siberian student scales birch tree for internet access as classes move online

Russian student Alexei Dudoladov has been forced to go to great lengths - or rather great heights - to attend classes online, having to climb a birch tree in his remote Siberian village every time he needs an internet connection. The 21-year-old, a popular blogger and a student at the Omsk Institute of Water Transport, located 2,225 kilometres (1,383 miles) east of Moscow, has got the authorities' attention by pleading for better internet coverage from the top of a snow-covered birch tree.