ITALY
Hospital boss in hot water
A hospital director sent a memo to doctors and nurses asking them not to snort cocaine while on duty, the ANSA news agency reported on Saturday. Giuseppe di Maria now faces possible disciplinary action following the memo sent to medical staff at the Santa Catarina Novella di Galatina Hospital near Lecce. The memo was sent after di Maria received anonymous tip-offs about the practice at the hospital, the report said. Social services chiefs have opened an internal inquiry into the affair and also referred it to the local prosecutor’s office. Director of social affairs Guido Scoditti said he had no choice but to pass the matter on to the authorities. “The director of the hospital has certainly made an error. He should not have sent this memo. He should have informed me directly ... The alleged consumption of cocaine in a hospital environment should certainly not be dealt with in this way,” he said.
POLAND
Group builds 9.5m snowman
A group has decided to make the most of winter, building a 9.5m snowman dubbed Milocinek, who wears a barrel for a hat and a road safety cone for his nose. A newspaper says several people labored for six days on their creation, which stands eye-level with surrounding two-story homes. The Web site of the Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper says the snowman’s creators began their project out of boredom but became more ambitious as they went along. The snowman was completed on Friday near the town of Trzebnica. The newspaper’s Web site reported on Saturday that the snowman’s builders believe Milocinek is the largest snowman built in the country since winter weather set in more than a week ago.
UNITED KINGDOM
Santas invade London
Hundreds of people dressed as Santa Claus descended on London on Saturday, startling commuters and tourists with a tide of seasonal cheer. Red-suited Santas poured through busy Liverpool Street railway station before walking across the city to Trafalgar Square. Others converged on the central square from the west and south. People posted photos on Twitter of scores of Santas marching through the city and clambering onto the lion statues at the foot of Nelson’s Column in Trafalgar Square. Organizers of the annual “Santacon” festive flash mob said it was “a nonprofit, nonpolitical, nonreligious and nonsensical celebration of Christmas cheer, goodwill, and fun.” Similar events were scheduled for New York and Beijing.
UNITED KINGDOM
Branson to serve on flight
Virgin boss Richard Branson will serve as a flight attendant on an AirAsia X flight in February after losing a cross-dressing bet to rival Tony Fernandes, officials said yesterday. The two men laid the wager over whose Formula One team would place higher in this year’s rankings. Although both teams completed the season with zero points, Fernandes’ Lotus F1 team was placed ahead of Branson’s Virgin Racing by virtue of their better race finishing positions. “It’s confirmed February 21, 2011. Richard Branson will be a crew of AirAsia X,” Fernandes said in a Twitter post late on Saturday, adding that the flight will take off from London Stansted Airport, bound for Kuala Lumpur. Fernandes said last month seats on the flight will be auctioned off for charity. An AirAsia official said Branson would be required to wear makeup and high-heels, along with the regulation red stewardess outfit and would have to perform regular duties — including cleaning the toilets — during the flight.
ALGERIA
Army offensive kills 12
Security officials in the Kabilie region say at least a dozen armed Islamist insurgents have been killed in an army offensive triggered in part by reports of a meeting of local leaders of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. Witnesses say helicopter gunships on Saturday bombed the area around Sidi Ali Bounab, 110km east of Algiers. The mountainous Kabilie region serves as a base of insurgents of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. Several local security officials said 12 insurgents were killed in the offensive, which began on Thursday after word of a planned meeting of emirs from the Kabilie and Boumerdes regions.
UNITED STATES
Toddler stuck in toy crane
Authorities say a two-year-old girl spent 15 minutes stuck inside a toy crane vending machine in a Pittsburgh-area mall. Moon Run fire chief Paul Kashmer told WPXI-TV that the girl didn’t seem upset by the ordeal on Wednesday night in the food court at the Mall of Robinson, in Robinson Township. Kashmer says firefighters arrived to find “the cutest little girl in a pink outfit sucking her binky inside with the other toys.” The girl apparently climbed up the chute into which the coin-operated crane drops prizes. Kashmer used a tool to pry open a door on the machine to reach the girl.
UNITED STATES
Dylan lyrics go for a song
The hand-written lyrics of Bob Dylan’s iconic 1960s anthem The Times They Are A-Changin sold for US$422,500 on Friday, Sotheby’s auction house said. The two-page notebook manuscript — which had been expected to go for US$200,000 to US$300,000 — was snapped up by US collector Adam Sender, owner of the hedge fund Exis Capital, Sotheby’s said. The time-worn document features four verses of lyrics, without musical notation, written in pencil with “By Bob Dylan” scrawled at the top. Dylan, who turns 70 next year, still continues to record and perform.
UNITED STATES
Movie inspires bomb-making
A Kentucky man has pleaded guilty to making bombs, claiming he feared the end of the world after watching the disaster movie 2012. The Courier-Journal reports that James Byron Birkhead told federal agents he was making bombs to protect his family when the government fails and food riots occur. Agent Kevin Kelm, with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, says police were called to Birkhead’s home in Owensboro when a social worker sent to check on the well-being of Birkhead’s daughters heard that he was acquiring weapons. On Thursday, the 52-year-old pleaded guilty in the District Court in Owensboro to possessing and manufacturing explosive materials without a license. He is scheduled to be sentenced on March 4. The government has recommended a six to 12-month sentence.
HAITI
Palin visits charity projects
Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin arrived in Haiti on Saturday with the Reverend Franklin Graham as part of a humanitarian mission by his Samaritan’s Purse relief organization. The potential US presidential candidate is expected to visit the Haitian capital and stop by cholera--treatment centers and other projects of Graham’s charity group. Her exact itinerary was not released for security reasons.
Far from the violence ravaging Haiti, a market on the border with the Dominican Republic has maintained a welcome degree of normal everyday life. At the Dajabon border gate, a wave of Haitians press forward, eager to shop at the twice-weekly market about 200km from Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. They are drawn by the market’s offerings — food, clothing, toys and even used appliances — items not always readily available in Haiti. However, with gang violence bad and growing ever worse in Haiti, the Dominican government has reinforced the usual military presence at the border and placed soldiers on alert. While the market continues to
An image of a dancer balancing on the words “China Before Communism” looms over Parisian commuters catching the morning metro, signaling the annual return of Shen Yun, a controversial spectacle of traditional Chinese dance mixed with vehement criticism of Beijing and conservative rhetoric. The Shen Yun Performing Arts company has slipped the beliefs of a spiritual movement called Falun Gong in between its technicolored visuals and leaping dancers since 2006, with advertising for the show so ubiquitous that it has become an Internet meme. Founded in 1992, Falun Gong claims nearly 100 million followers and has been subject to “persistent persecution” in
ONLINE VITRIOL: While Mo Yan faces a lawsuit, bottled water company Nongfu Spring and Tsinghua University are being attacked amid a rise in nationalist fervor At first glance, a Nobel prize winning author, a bottle of green tea and Beijing’s Tsinghua University have little in common, but in recent weeks they have been dubbed by China’s nationalist netizens as the “three new evils” in the fight to defend the country’s valor in cyberspace. Last month, a patriotic blogger called Wu Wanzheng filed a lawsuit against China’s only Nobel prize-winning author, Mo Yan (莫言), accusing him of discrediting the Communist army and glorifying Japanese soldiers in his fictional works set during the Japanese invasion of China. Wu, who posts online under the pseudonym “Truth-Telling Mao Xinghuo,” is seeking
‘SURPRISES’: The militants claim to have successfully tested a missile capable of reaching Mach 8 and vowed to strike ships heading toward the Cape of Good Hope Yemen’s Houthi rebels claim to have a new, hypersonic missile in their arsenal, Russia’s state media reported on Thursday, potentially raising the stakes in their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and surrounding waterways against the backdrop of Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The report by the state-run RIA Novosti news agency cited an unidentified official, but provided no evidence for the claim. It comes as Moscow maintains an aggressively counter-Western foreign policy amid its grinding war on Ukraine. However, the Houthis have for weeks hinted about “surprises” they plan for the battles at sea to counter the