last friday, an unknown young man accidentally exploded a homemade bomb in the basement bathroom of a hotel in copenhagen, near one of the busiest train stations in the city. shrapnel dotting his face, he fled into a nearby park, losing his prosthetic leg along the way. despite this, it still took police more than two hours to find the injured, one-legged man under some bushes in the park. but find him they finally did and took him in for questioning.

he refused to speak anything but french and refused to give any information whatsoever about himself. evidence of three different false identities was found on him. but it took a tabloid reporter who thought the young man's nose looked suspiciously like a boxer's to track his true identity to a boxing club in belgium. reasoning, rightly enough, that a french-speaking one-legged boxer was a bit of a rarity. turns out he's a 24-year-old from chechnya, who has lived the past five years in belgium. he lost his leg to a mine as a child in chechnya. and he did indeed go to a boxing club in belgium.

are you waiting for a punchline? does this sound like a joke? well actually, it's not. it's all true.

still no one knows what he was doing in copenhagen and what really happened with that shoddily-made bomb. speculations abound, of course.  but for the most part, it strikes me as a kind of farcical comedy led by keystone cops. i just hope it's not a distraction for something else on the horizon...