■ Russia
Nuclear weapons planned
President Vladimir Putin said yesterday that Russia would in the coming years acquire new nuclear weapon systems which other nuclear powers do not yet have and are unlikely to develop in the near future. "We have not only conducted tests of the latest nuclear rocket systems," Putin said in televised remarks to a meeting of generals from the various branches of Russia's armed forces. "Moreover, these will be things which do not exist and are unlikely to exist in other nuclear powers," he added. Russia has been seeking to upgrade its nuclear arsenal after the US announced plans in 2001 to develop a missile defense shield in abrogation of its 1972 ABM Treaty with Moscow.
■ United States
Site offers online hunting
Hunters soon may be able to sit at their computers and blast away at animals on a Texas ranch via the Internet, a prospect that has state wildlife officials up in arms. A controversial Web site, www.live-shot.com, already offers target practice with a .22 caliber rifle and could soon let hunters shoot at deer, antelope and wild pigs, site creator John Underwood said on Tuesday. Texas officials are not quite sure what to make of Underwood's Web site, but may tweak existing laws to make sure Internet hunting does not get out of hand. Underwood, an estimator for a San Antonio, Texas auto body shop, has invested US$10,000 to build a platform for a rifle and camera that can be remotely aimed on his 133-hectare southwest Texas ranch.
■ United States
Ducky sex toy causes trouble
Town officials have restored a woman's business license weeks after accusing her of trying to sell a sex toy -- a vibrating yellow-ducky sponge -- at a flea market. The Nashville suburb agreed Monday to allow Katherine Williams to keep the license for her Passions & Pleasures intimate gifts business if she does not display her wares in public. Williams typically sells her lotions and adult novelties at home parties. Town officials had threatened to cite Williams for violating the sexually oriented business ordinance after she set up a table at the flea market last month, but they could find no witnesses who would testify to seeing her display.
■ United States
Guns not allowed at office
Employees at a Little Rock, Arkansas office building have been asked to leave their deer hunting rifles at home because the president and three former presidents are coming to town to open Bill Clinton's presidential library. Acxiom Corporation distributed a memo to the 420 employees in its 12-story building near the Clinton library, reminding them of its policy forbidding weapons on company property. "This would not be a time to violate that policy," said Dale Ingram, spokesman for Acxiom. The Acxiom building overlooks the library, where US President George W. Bush and former presidents Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush and Clinton are to speak. Deer hunting season in Arkansas began last weekend, and overlaps with the dedication, today, of Clinton's library.
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