Mayor wants to ban death

I'm posting a few strange news items from 2005 that I missed.

The mayor of a Brazilian town is trying to bring in a law making it illegal for residents to die.
Mayor Roberto Pereira da Silva, of , came up with the idea because the town's only cemetery is full.

He wants to bring in a law that would see relatives of people who die before their time face fines or even jail. The law would make it an offence for the town's 28,000 citizens to not look after their health properly. Mayor Pereira da Silva said there was no way of expending the cemetery or building a new one, reports Agora Sao Paulo.

He said: "Eighty nine per cent of the town is rivers, the rest is protected because it is tropical jungle." The state government had promised to help build a new vertical cemetery - but nothing had been done.

Gym memberships have reportedly shot up since the mayor announced his plans, and more people are visiting doctors. - ana