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World News Quick Take

■ CHINA
Heroin smuggler nabbed
Customs officials caught a heroin smuggler after noticing he was wearing "weird sandals," state media reported yesterday. Xinhua news agency said a Nigerian was detained last week in Zhuhai, bordering Macau, after he was caught carrying more than 2kg of heroin. It said attention was drawn to the man because he was "wearing a pair of weird sandals." "Police X-rayed his suitcase and found another pair of strange sandals in it," Xinhua said. The heroin was hidden in the soles of the sandals, it said. Xinhua did not describe the sandals.

■ CHINA
Web fraudster caught
Police in the south have arrested a man for running a phony Beijing 2008 Olympics Web site that bilked fans by running bogus contests, Xinhua news agency reported on Sunday. Computer engineer Liao Peigui, 20, made as much as 400,000 yuan (US$53,000) from people he persuaded had won contest prizes, Xinhua said. "Winners" were asked to first transfer a deposit equal to 10 percent to 20 percent of the promised prize money into a bank account owned by Liao, the report said. Some individuals lost as much as 10,000 yuan, Xinhua said, citing Hainan Province police.

■ AUSTRALIA
Actress Lois Maxwell dies
Lois Maxwell, who starred as Miss Moneypenny in 14 James Bond movies, has died, the BBC reported on Sunday. She was 80. The Canadian-born actress starred alongside Sean Connery in the first James Bond movie, Dr No, in 1962 as the secretary to M, the head of the secret service. She died on Saturday night at Fremantle Hospital near her home in Perth, the BBC cited a hospital official as saying. Bond star Roger Moore said she was suffering from cancer. "It's rather a shock," Moore, who had known her since they were students at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 1944, told BBC radio.

■ NEPAL
King visits `goddess' temple
The increasingly isolated King Gyanendra has sought the blessings of a child some believe to be a living goddess in an ancient annual ritual considered crucial to preserve the monarch's power. Former Maoist rebels said Gyanendra's visit to the temple of the child "goddess" Kumari late on Sunday, the final day of a rain god festival, had bolstered their demand for the monarchy's abolition before constituent assembly elections on Nov. 22. The visit came a few hours after Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala had taken the king's place at the festival. "This is a proof that he is still active," senior Maoist leader Dev Gurung said.

■ AFGHANISTAN
`Most wanted' plan launched
The US military has launched a new "Most Wanted" campaign offering rewards of up to US$200,000 for information leading to the capture of 12 Taliban and al-Qaeda leaders. Posters and billboards are being put up in the eastern part of the country with the names and pictures of the 12, with reward amounts ranging from US$20,000 to US$200,000. The list is filled with local insurgent cell leaders responsible for roadside and suicide bomb attacks. "We're trying to get more visibility on these guys like the FBI did with the mob," said Lieutenant Colonel Rob Pollack, a US officer at the main American base in Bagram. "They operate the same way the mob did, they stay in hiding," he said.

■ AUSTRIA
New ear-lifting record set
A Pakistani man broke the world-record for "ear-lifting" in Vienna on Sunday, carrying almost 62kg from a cord attached to his right ear. Zafar Gill's feat earned him a place in the Guinness Book of World Records, as part of a day of record-breaking attempts in the city, organized under the slogan "Vienna -- Recordbreaker." Gill had to use a special headgrip to protect both his ear and temple, as he lifted the weight for seven seconds about 10cm off the ground. After warming up with a more modest 30kg weight, Gill took up the record-breaking 61.7kg with only a brief cry of pain.

■ SIERRA LEONE
Officials barred from trips
Two weeks after taking office with a pledge to fight corruption, President Ernest Bai Koroma has banned all outgoing government officials from leaving the country without special clearance from police. The government said on Saturday that ministers and other senior officials who have access to public funds must get permission from the inspector general of police to leave the country. When he was sworn in on Sept. 17, Koroma promised he would adopt a policy of "zero tolerance on corruption and the mismanagement of state resources."

■ ITALY
Elderly nuns come to blows
A convent is being shut down after a quarrel among its last three remaining nuns ended in blows, reports said on Sunday. In July, Sisters Annamaria and Gianbattista -- reportedly upset about Sister Liliana's authoritarian ways -- scratched her in the face and threw her to the ground at Santa Clara convent near Bari in July. Archbishop Giovanni Battista Pichierri tried to reconcile the nuns but finally decided in late August that they had "clearly lost their religious vocation" and asked the Vatican for permission to close Santa Clara. Liliana -- who has been at Santa Clara since its founding in 1963 -- barricaded herself inside, refusing to leave, the reports said.

■ UNITED KINGDOM
Runaway chimp shot dead
A runaway chimp was shot dead after breaking out of his enclosure at an English zoo, his keepers said. Chimpanzees Jonnie and Coco broke out of their compound Friday morning at the Whipsnade Zoo in Bedfordshire. The Zoological Society of London (ZSL), which runs the zoo, said Coco was recaptured, but Jonnie could not immediately be caught and had to be killed. "It's just standard procedure, if the animal cannot be quickly and safely recaptured it will be shot," ZSL spokeswoman Alice Henchley said.

■ UNITED KINGDOM
Royal canines star in book
A new book, Noble Hounds and Dear Companions, by Sophie Gordon, shows off generations of royal dogs -- and their royal owners. Many of the photographs come from the private album of King George VI, who looks as close to happy and relaxed as ever in his life, sharing a garden bench with his wife and a labrador. Another shows his daughter Elizabeth with her arms around the first of the royal corgis.

■ UNITED STATES
Top street cook awarded
For Thiru ``The Dosa Man'' Kumar, the third time is the charm. The Sri Lankan, who runs NY Dosa, a vegan food cart in Manhattan, won the third annual Vendy Award, given to the city's top street chef vendor. Kumar, who had competed unsuccessfully for the two previous Vendy Awards, won for his specialty Pondicherry dosas, a type of filled crepe. He accepted the large silver Vendy cup on Saturday night. Kumar, who runs his cart at Washington Square Park, beat out four other finalists, including carts for tacos and falafel. The public whittled several hundred entrants down to the five finalists.

■ UNITED STATES
Limit kids' TV viewing: study
Young children's TV viewing presents a dilemma to parents aware of potential harm to development, but a study released yesterday said children who stop watching so much by age five-and-a-half do not exhibit problems. "Reducing viewing to acceptable levels can reduce the risk of behavioral and social problems," said Kamila Mistry of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, author of the study published in Pediatrics, the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics. The group has issued guidelines that discourage TV viewing among children younger than two years and recommend children older than two limit their viewing to less than two hours daily.

■ UNITED STATES
Stone skipping record set
A Pennsylvania man cast a stone that skipped on water 51 times, shattering the old world record of 40. Russell Byars' feat happened on July 19. He estimated his stone traveled about 76m. Before declaring him a record holder, Guinness World Records experts analyzed film of Byars' toss, checking the concentric circles in the water by each skip. "I actually threw 40 stones that day, but that was the first skip that I threw," Byars told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette newspaper, which confirmed the record with Guinness officials. The old record was set in 2002.

■ UNITED STATES
Man charged over child porn
A man accused of holding and showing off a tape depicting the sexual assault of a three-year-old girl was taken into custody on Sunday, authorities said. Darrin Tuck, 26, arranged to surrender after evading arrest since Friday, Nye County Sheriff Tony DeMeo said. Prosecutors were set to charge Tuck with possession of child pornography and possibly promoting child pornography yesterday, DeMeo said. Tuck has told authorities he found the tape in the desert, but authorities said he possessed it for as long as five months before turning it in. The girl in the tape was located after authorities on Friday released information they would not normally disclose in order to get tips from the public, including a picture, DeMeo said.

■ UNITED STATES
Pamela Anderson to wed
Former Baywatch star Pamela Anderson and Rick Salomon applied for -- and were granted -- a marriage license in Las Vegas, according to the Clark County's Marriage License Bureau. The license gained late on Saturday means the couple can get married any time during the next year. Anderson, 40, previously has been married to singer Kid Rock and Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee. Salomon, 38, is best known for making a sex videotape with his then-girlfriend Paris Hilton and was previously married to actress Shannen Doherty.


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