■UNITED STATES
Octuplet mom signs deal
The Southern California woman who gave birth to the world’s longest-surviving set of octuplets has signed a deal to star in a reality TV series, her lawyer said on Sunday. Nadya Suleman, who gave birth to the six boys and two girls in January and also has six other children, agreed to be filmed for a proposed TV show by Eyeworks, a Netherlands-based production company, attorney Jeff Czech said. The company hasn’t yet sold the show to any TV network, he said.
■EL SALVADOR
Funes appoints wife
President-elect Mauricio Funes has appointed his wife and a former Marxist guerrilla to Cabinet posts just hours before starting his five-year term. Funes, the first president from the leftist Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, has named first lady Vanda Pignato as minister of social inclusion. Funes announced late on Sunday that former FMLN guerrilla leader and Vice President Salvador Sanchez Ceren would be education minister and Hugo Martinez would be foreign minister. The FMLN fought to overthrow US-backed governments in the 1980s.
■CHILE
Grannies charged with drugs
They did not fit the typical drug dealer profile: two elderly grandmothers, one of them bedridden, living beside a police academy on a leafy suburban street. But authorities say Maria Valdebenito, 80, and Giselle Gilbert, 72, ran a profitable drugs business from their home in Providencia, a suburb in the capital, Santiago. They have been charged with drug trafficking after a police raid at the weekend netted almost 2kg of cocaine, cocaine paste and £45,000 (US$74,000) in cash. Because of their age and Valdebenito’s infirmity, they have been placed under house arrest.
■UNITED STATES
Israeli official to mend rift
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak was to try to heal a growing rift with his country’s main ally over the Middle East peace process when he was to start talks with top officials yesterday. Barak is likely to devote a lot of time to easing tensions, although the talks were originally planned to focus on bilateral defense ties and Washington-led international efforts to halt Iran’s nuclear drive, an aide said. During the three-day trip, he is expected to meet Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, National Security Adviser James Jones and President Barack Obama’s special envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell.
■UNITED KINGDOM
Taxi drivers are grumpiest
Taxi drivers are Britain’s grumpiest workers, a survey showed yesterday, while secretaries are the happiest. The gloomy prospect of ferrying around strangers every day makes taxi drivers laugh less than any other profession, the survey of 4,000 workers showed. Drivers cited traffic jams, the rising cost of petrol, drunken passengers and frisky couples as reasons not to be cheerful. Fitness instructors could lighten up too, with just 0.9 percent of them saying they enjoy a giggle in the gym. Those in recruitment could also do with a good dose of humor, the survey said, as just 3.8 percent laughed regularly during the working day. By contrast, 53.5 percent of secretaries said they laughed on a regular basis during a working day, with a quarter of those surveyed confessing that most of their amusement comes from watching the stressful lives of their disgruntled bosses.
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