■ MEXICO
Shaving drivers beware
Motorists in the northern part of the country who are caught dabbing on lipstick, shaving or carrying a pet at the wheel will now face hefty fines as authorities try to cut down on traffic accidents. Putting on make-up or shaving with an electric razor will land drivers fines of up to 346 pesos (US$32) in Torreon from this month, media reported on Saturday. Along with a slew of higher fines for common traffic offenses such as driving while intoxicated, speeding, and talking on a telephone without a headset, Torreon city hall said new misdemeanors included throwing trash out of a car window, and driving with another person or an animal on a motorist's lap. City halls across the country are stiffening traffic laws as motorists regularly ignore stop lights, drive drunk or with children in the front seat, and carry passengers in the back of pick-up trucks.
■ PARAGUAY
Fire disaster trial ends
The owners and a security guard of a supermarket that was chained shut after it caught fire killing 400 people inside were sentenced to 12 years in prison on Saturday, in the second trial over the disaster. Juan Pio Pavia, his son Victor Daniel Pavia and private security guard Daniel Areco were convicted in the 400 deaths and 600 injuries from the Aug. 1, 2004 fire after the court blamed them for chaining shut the exits of a supermarket in Asuncion. During the trial, the defendants said they closed down the market after the fire broke out because they feared the 2,000 people inside would loot the premises. An earlier trial that ended in December 2006 with five-year-prison sentences for each of the defendants was annulled by the Supreme Court because the uproar of the outraged families of the fire victims cut short the reading out of the sentences.
■ UNITED STATES
Giraffe gets Tiki coat
Like many a lady of a certain age, Tiki feels the cold these days. So workers at the Oakland Zoo in California had a custom-fit coat made to keep the giraffe cozy this winter. At age 18, venerable for giraffes, Tiki is subject to the vicissitudes of age. She already gets regular visits from an acupuncturist, a chiropractor, and a masseuse. Those are usual treatments for horses, at least in the always edgy San Francisco Bay area, and provide a gentle way to treat animals without drugs, said zoo keeper Melissa McCartney. Massage helps get Tiki used to interacting with keepers. Acupuncture helps with her shoulder and withers. However, coping with the effect of Bay Area winter chills on the African mammal had baffled keepers..
■ UNITED STATES
Groundhog sees shadow
The country's most famous groundhog emerged from his burrow early on Saturday and declared that winter will last another six weeks. Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow shortly before 7:30am to the cheers of more than 30,000 people from as far away as Alaska and Texas, one of the largest crowds in the 122-year history of the event in the central Pennsylvania town of Punxsutawney. The rodent was taken out of a tree stump on a hill called Gobbler's Knob, and delivered his forecast to William Cooper, president of Punxsutawney's Inner Circle, who organizers say is the only person in the world who can speak "groundhog-ese." Cooper read a scroll containing the groundhog's prediction. It said: "As I look around me, a bright sky I see, and a shadow beside me. Six more weeks of winter it will be."
RSS