How a cockroach put 30 people out of work

For the viewers of Turkmenistan's popular nightly news program, Vatan, it was another routine bulletin. But as the newsreader began the 9pm broadcast, viewers across the central Asian country spotted something unusual crawling across the studio table: a large brown cockroach. The cockroach managed to complete a whole lap of the desk, apparently undetected, before disappearing. The program, complete with cockroach, was repeated at 11pm that night. Turkmenistan's president, Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, was so upset when outraged viewers complained to the station that he fired 30 workers from the main state TV channel. Source: Guardian (via)