Spain dishes out USD 2.43 billion in bumper Christmas lottery
Madrid: The lucky holders of ticket number 26590 struck it rich in Spain on Sunday when they won the top prize in the nation’s bumper Christmas lottery.
The top-prize winning number worth 400,000 euros (USD 436,000) fell out of the enormous metallic shuffling bins in a live televised event Sunday morning. The winners won 20,000 euros for each euro spent on a 20-euro ticket.
The incredibly popular lottery, known as El Gordo (The Fat One), dishes out a total of 2.24 billion euros ( USD 2.43 billion) in prizes this year. There are lots of smaller prizes in addition to the top prize. Other lotteries have bigger individual top prizes but El Gordo, held each year on December 22, is ranked as the world’s richest for the total prize money involved.
Children from Madrid’s San Ildefonso school called out the prizes on a nationally televised draw at Madrid’s Teatro Real opera house. Families, friends and co-workers buy tickets together as part of a winter holiday tradition.
They then gather around their television sets, radios or mobile phones, hoping that fortune shines on them. The lottery is run by the state and supports several charity efforts. (AP)
4 drivers killed on Brazil gangster’s order over cancelled ride
Brasilia: A Brazilian gangster had four rideshare drivers killed as he was angry that his sick mothers Uber ride was cancelled, the media reported.
The drivers, who worked for Uber and Brazilian transit firm 99, were tortured and slain behind a shack in Salvador city on December 13, reports said.
A fifth driver managed to escape into a nearby swamp and called police.
“The gangster ordered these people killed because his mother called Uber, but the car never arrived,” said Rui Costa, the governor of Bahia, was cited as saying by a media outlet.
The victim who managed to escape told a local television station that he was called to the neighbourhood for a pickup.
He was then forced out of his car at gunpoint and led behind a shack, where he saw other drivers being tortured.
He escaped when another driver snatched a pistol away from one of the kidnappers.
According to reports, the police confronted two suspects and killed them in a shootout the same day the drivers were kidnapped. (IANS)