Odd News Roundup: Tricking the taste buds: flavour makers rise to meaty challenge; Sri Lankan lawmaker eats raw fish to promote sales hit by coronavirus 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.

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.

Swimming Santa brings Dead Sea to life with tree and cheer

At the lowest point on earth, in the middle of a giant salt lake where animals and plants have no chance of surviving, a jolly man dressed in red with a flowing white beard stuck a Christmas tree in the ground and went for a swim. Santa Claus came to the Dead Sea on Sunday ahead of the Christmas season, part of a campaign by Israel's Tourism Ministry to bring some Christmas cheer during a global pandemic that has kept Christian pilgrims away from the Holy Land.

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 his first ever 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.

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.

(With inputs from agencies.)