■ GUYANA
Bizarre appeal for a car
The former first lady appealed to her fellow citizens to lend her a car to carry out charitable work on Wednesday, complaining she currently has to walk or take a bus. In a bizarre news conference, Varshnie Jagdeo said state cars are no longer available to take her to her job at a children's charity. Her nearly nine-year marriage to President Bharrat Jagdeo ended with their separation in April. "If there is anyone with a spare vehicle who can lend it to me for a while, I will be very grateful," the British-trained economist said in the capital, Georgetown. "I'm amazed that I needed to be married for the nation's children to get assistance."
■ UNITED STATES
Mother, son jailed for life
A judge on Wednesday sentenced a man and his mother to life in prison for the murder of the man's wife, allegedly because she failed to follow Indian customs. Minaxiben Patel, 50, hung her head and stared at the courtroom floor throughout most of the sentencing hearing. She and her son, Chetankumar Patel, 33, were convicted on Nov. 20 on charges of aggravated murder, tampering with evidence and abuse of a corpse, the Akron Beakon Journal reported. The body of Sejal Patel, 28, was found in the rear cargo compartment of a sport utility vehicle. She had been strangled, beaten and left wrapped in a blanket a short distance from her home.
■ BRAZIL
Bishop ready to die for river
A Roman Catholic bishop who is on the second day of a hunger strike said on Wednesday he was prepared to die unless the government stops work on a controversial river diversion project. The project would divert the Sao Francisco river, the nation's fourth largest, as part of a plan to irrigate the nation's arid northeast. The government estimates the plan will benefit about 12 million people in the desperately poor region. Bishop Luiz Flavio Cappio and other opponents of the project say it will cause irreversible environmental damage and principally benefit large agribusiness interests and builders. Cappio said in telephone interview that he would not call off his hunger strike unless the government agreed to shelve the project.
■ UNITED STATES
Phone rage judge sacked
A judge in New York state lost his job after taking 46 people into custody after they all refused to admit whose mobile phone rang while court was in session, court sources said on Wednesday. Judge Robert Restaino was presiding over family court in Niagara Falls, New York, on March 11, 2005, when a mobile phone rang in the public seating area. The judge demanded that the owner of the phone make himself known, and when no one did he ordered 46 people present taken into custody. Most got out on bond but 14 who were unable wound up in jail.
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