■ UNITED STATES
Corn flake resembles Illinois
Someone has offered more than US$20 on eBay for a piece of breakfast cereal that resembles the state of Illinois. Two sisters listed "The Great Illinois Corn Flake" on the site. Emily McIntire, a sophomore in high school from Chesapeake, Virginia, said she was grabbing fistfuls of cereal when she found the flake. "It was almost to my mouth, it didn't look like Illinois at first because it was held the wrong way," said McIntire, but then she noticed the resemblance and said, "Oh my goodness, it's Illinois."
■ IRAN
Tehran blasts EU statement
Tehran furiously accused the EU of unacceptable behavior and political manipulation yesterday after the bloc issued a statement describing Iranian parliamentary elections as unfair. "The issuing of this statement by the EU presidency is hasty, has political intentions and is opportunist and unacceptable," foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said in a statement. "It is to be condemned." The EU had said that the disqualification of reformist candidates in pre-vote vetting meant that Friday's election "was neither fair nor free."
■ UNITED KINGDOM
McCartney's ex gets millions
Former Beatle Paul McCartney and his estranged wife Heather Mills have agreed a divorce deal worth nearly ?25 million (US$50 million), Mills said yesterday. "The most important thing for me is to get this over and done with, she told reporters on the steps of London's High Court. Mills described the ?24.3 million settlement as "incredible" and that she was "very, very, very pleased" for herself and the couple's four-year-old daughter, Beatrice. "It was always going to be a figure between 20 and 30 million. Paul was offering a lot less than that," she said. She said McCartney had offered her ?15.8 million, but the judge made the award after estimating his fortune to be about ?400 million.
■ MEXICO
Accusations fly after polls
Moderates and hardliners exchanged accusations of voting irregularities on Sunday as the main leftist party chose new leaders. The two front-runners for the Democratic Revolution Party's top job would likely take the party in sharply different directions. Exit polls released late on Sunday showed former Mexico City mayor Alejandro Encinas leading former senator Jesus Ortega. Polls were marred by allegations of vote-buying, intimidation and improper handling of ballots, with problems at 376 polling places.
■ SPAIN
ABBA drummer dies
The former drummer of 1970s Swedish pop group ABBA, Brunkert Ola, has been found dead after an apparent accident in the garden of his house in Mallorca, Spanish news agency EFE reported yesterday. Ola bled to death from a throat wound which police suspect was caused by the smashing of a pane of glass, EFE said.
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