News from around the world

The following text is originally lifted from the trivia section of The Jakarta Post dated Saturday, 28 June 2008.

~Compiled from various sources~

• The flag of the Philippines is the only national flag that is flown differently during times of peace or war.
• Libya has the only flag that is all one colour (green) with no writing or decoration on it.
• The Swiss flag is square.
• Nepal is the only country without a rectangular flag. Its flag instead looks like two pennants glued on top of the other.
• The British royal family changed their last name to Windsor from Saxe-Coburg-Gotha during World War 1 so as not to appear to pro-German.
• In 1739, nearly 500 thousand people died in Ireland due to the widespread crop failure of potatoes.
• At the end of the Spanish-American War in 1898, the USA occupied Cuba. Rioting mobs in the street, along with outbreaks of malaria and yellow fever, created havoc in the country. Lt. James Moss was sent with his troops to maintain order and was successful. The unique thing about Moss's 25th infantry of only 100 men was that they were a bicycle corps - they all rode bicycles, they were all black, and they never once used their weapons while in Cuba.
• A Mexican president once held a funeral for his own leg. The president, Antonio de Santa Anna, was the general who in 1836 led Mexican troops to victory over Texan rebels at the siege of Alamo. Santa Anna's leg was amputated below the knee after he was wounded during a battle with French troops in December 1838. He kept the leg at his hacienda near Veracruz for four years, during which he rose to become effectively dictator of Mexico and the centre of an adoring political cult. On 26 September 1842 his supporters solemnly paraded the leg thru the streets of Mexico City to the accompaniment of the bands and orchestras, then laid it to rest in a national shrine known as the Pantheon of Saint Paula. Two years later, however, the leg was stolen during the riots that surrounded Santa Anna's fall from power. Santa Anna died in 1876 at the age of 62 - poor, blind and ignored.