■ TURKEY
Candidate shot dead
An independent candidate was shot dead in Istanbul ahead of general elections on July 22, the candidate's Web site and a news agency reported yesterday. Tuncay Seyranlioglu, 42, was shot in his car after participating in a television show on Monday evening, the Anatolia news agency reported. Seyranlioglu's Web site confirmed his death. Three other people in the car were injured and taken to a hospital, Anatolia said. None were in critical condition. The assailants escaped in a black car, the agency said. Seyranlioglu's Web site said he was a businessman and that he owned a small newspaper in Istanbul. Calls to the newspaper, Tamgun, were not immediately answered.
■ UNITED KINGDOM
Shambo avoids slaughter
A court on Monday quashed a decision to slaughter a sacred bull which tested positive for bovine tuberculosis, after protests by Hindu monks and nuns. The ruling by the High Court in Cardiff, Wales, was immediately hailed by the Hindu Forum of Britain as "a landmark judgment in the history of religious worship" in Britain. The Welsh Assembly government said it was "urgently" seeking to appeal the decision. The court ruled that the assembly had so far failed to prove that slaughtering six-year-old Shambo was the only way to check the spread of the disease. The case will be heard at the Court of Appeal in London on Friday.
■ AUSTRIA
Divorce fair scheduled
Anyone interested in ending his or her marriage will be able to get all the necessary information to do so at a divorce fair in Vienna from Oct. 27-28. "It's a world premiere," said Anton Barz, the man behind the project. Various stands will be set up with lawyers, mediators, notaries and psychologists on hand to offer counsel. And to avoid any awkward or potentially heated encounter with a former husband or wife, Saturday will be reserved for men while Sunday will be open to women only.
■ SPAIN
Bull run costs man his son
A man who took his 10-year-old son bull running during the annual Pamplona festival last week has had his visitation rights to the boy taken away by a judge. The boy's mother complained to police after seeing a newspaper photograph of her ex-husband leading their son by the arm just a few feet in front of the bulls, El Mundo reported on yesterday. A member of the mother's family said they didn't want the boy to lose touch with his father, but added the man needed to be taught a lesson about taking care of her son.
■ NETHERLANDS
TV show raises donors
More than 12,000 people registered as organ donors following a television hoax in which three contestants purportedly competed for the kidney of a dying woman, the government announced on Monday. The Big Donor Show made headlines around the world and was branded tasteless and unethical when its makers announced they would run a game show with a kidney as the top prize. However, the show's makers were widely praised when they revealed it was a hoax aimed at raising awareness of the plight of patients waiting for organs. "Normally, the register receives 3,000 to 4,000 donor forms per month," the Health Ministry said in a statement.
■ CANADA
Pickton trial continues
Accused serial killer Robert Pickton described how he killed prostitutes after having sex with them and used his pigs to help dispose of the remains, prosecution witness Andrew Bellwood told a court in New Westminster, British Columbia, on Monday. Bellwood, who lived briefly at Pickton's farm, testified that Pickton showed him handcuffs and play-acted as he described stroking their hair and telling them everything would be okay, "it's over now." Bellwood said Pickton told him that after butchering the dead women in the farm's slaughterhouse, he fed some of the remains to his pigs. Pickton, 57, has denied murdering the women.
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