■ United Kingdom
Woolf notebook uncovered
A lost notebook covering three months of the novelist Virginia Woolf's life in her 20s has been found after lying in an academic's bottom drawer in Birmingham, England, for 35 years. The find, made during a house move, ranks high in the annals of literary discoveries. Extracts highlight the acuteness and vision of Woolf's style when she was a struggling 27-year-old unpublished writer. However, they also controversially underline her snobbery and early anti-semitism. In a sketch headed Jews, she writes of a Mrs Loeb: "... a fat Jewess, aged 56 [she tells her age to ingratiate herself], coarsely skinned, with drooping eyes and tumbled hair ... Her food, of course, swam in oil and was nasty."
■ United Kingdom
Gay bishop sparks protests
Evangelicals were threatening to split the Church of England Friday as their anger mounted over the appointment of a homosexual theologian and campaigner for gay Christian rights as Bishop of Reading, west of London. Protests have mounted since Jeffrey John, the canon theologian of Southwark Cathedral, London, was appointed by Richard Harries, Bishop of Oxford, three weeks ago. Some parishes are threatening to withdraw the financial contributions they make to diocesan running costs and in effect make a unilateral declaration of independence from the Church of England, though so far only one, in the City of London, has done so.
■ Greece
Doctor accused of doping
A neurosurgeon was accused on Friday of heavily sedating two hospital colleagues in an apparent reprisal for being assigned unpopular shifts, authorities said. The 48-year-old surgeon was arrested late Thursday carrying a box of sedatives. He was charged Friday with intent to cause serious harm and suspended from the state-run Tzanneio hospital at Athens' main port of Piraeus. His name was not announced. Police said they were investigating claims that the two colleagues, also surgeons, had been drugged on several occasions. The suspect allegedly slipped sedatives into their coffee at the hospital canteen.
■ France
Fisherman nets cannabis
A French fisherman netted a surprise catch this week -- 30kg of cannabis. The man was fishing on the river Yvette, on the southern edge of Paris, when he spotted something strange in the water, French media reported. Taking a closer look, he discovered 28 bags, each containing a little over a kilogram of cannabis resin and immediately alerted the police. "Perhaps it was the usual hiding place for a drug trafficker," a local policeman was quoted as saying in the Liberation daily. "With the heat, the [water] level had fallen. There was only about 50cm of water," he said.
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