ROMANIA
Witches face prison time
There’s more bad news in the cards for the country’s beleaguered witches. A month after authorities began taxing them for their trade, soothsayers and fortunetellers are cursing a new bill that threatens fines or even prison if their predictions don’t come true. Witches say they shouldn’t be blamed for the failure of their tools. “They can’t condemn witches, they should condemn the cards,” queen witch Bratara Buzea said. “I will fight until my last breath for this not to be passed.” Sometimes, she said, people don’t provide their real identities, dates of birth or other personal details, which could skew predictions.
FINLAND
Scientists brew old grog
Scientists say they hope to re-brew an old ale after studying ancient beer found in a 19th century shipwreck at the bottom of the Baltic Sea. The VTT Technical Research Center says it hopes to determine the recipe used in the brewing of what is “one of the world’s oldest preserved beers.” Divers Found five bottles of dark, foamy beer in July last year while salvaging champagne from the wreck near the Aland Islands.
UNITED KINGDOM
Grandmother foils robbery
A 71-year-old grandmother who “clobbered” a gang of sledgehammer-wielding thieves with her handbag credited her “mother’s instinct” for spurring her into action, media reported yesterday. Ann Timson was captured on video hitting three of the six helmet-clad robbers, causing one to fall off his moped as he tried to make his escape during the botched raid on a jewelry store in Northampton. “I saw a kid run up to the doorway of the jeweler,” she said. “Three lads followed him and when I saw their arms going, I thought the kid was being beaten up. My mother’s instinct kicked in and I ran across the road shouting at the lads to stop it. As I got closer I saw it was a robbery, and then I was even more angry. One of the gang shot off ... I clobbered him with my shopping. I landed several blows against one lad ... and brought him to the ground. He raised a hammer to me so I kept hitting out. It seemed to be over in seconds.” The would-be robbers dropped their loot. Four suspects have been arrested.
RUSSIA
Elderly woman hires hitman
A 70-year-old woman has been charged with offering to pay 30,000 rubles (US$1,025) for the murder of her former lover, a policeman less than half her age. “The woman plotted the murder of a 32-year-old policeman with whom she had an intimate relationship some time before,” a spokesperson for the regional investigative committee in Murmansk said. Police ensnared the woman after sending an officer posing as a hired killer to meet with her. She was arrested while trying to pay for the crime.
HUNGARY
‘Flying Gizi’ at it again
The country’s notorious octogenarian thief is not ready for retirement. The 84-year-old woman, known as “Flying Gizi,” whose criminal record goes back to the 1950s, is again in custody, police said on Tuesday. Fejer County police spokeswoman Agnes Szabo said the burglar, whose real name is Gizella Bodnar, is suspected of taking about 15,000 forints (US$75) from a home in Bicske. Bodnar, who has been convicted of more than 20 crimes and has spent nearly 18 years in prison, got her nickname because she enjoyed taking flights after successful break-ins. She eluded capture for years, as police never imagined that the cat burglar would travel so far to commit her crimes.
AUSTRALIA
Plane crashes, none hurt
A light plane crashed into a Sydney street yesterday, cutting power to thousands of people, but miraculously causing no injuries. A man, a woman and a dog emerged unhurt after the plane came down in the western suburb of Smithfield, plowing through power lines and ending up on its roof close to homes and an elementary school. The crash knocked out power to 7,000 homes and businesses, while police closed a road to deal with the single-engine aircraft, which was badly damaged. In December, a student pilot practicing maneuvers crash-landed in a garden outside Sydney, startling a woman who was hanging out her washing.
MALAYSIA
Ultrathin condoms missing
Police said on Tuesday they were investigating the disappearance of more than 700,000 ultrathin condoms that went missing in transit to Japan. Sagami Rubber Industries, Japan’s first condom maker, said last week that the shipment was loaded into a container at its factory in the north, but that it was empty with the locks replaced when it arrived in Tokyo. “We take the matter of the missing condoms very seriously ... we are investigating the matter,” a police spokesman said. Sato Koji, manager of the Sagami rubber factory in Perak, said they had lodged a police report over the loss of the shipment. Officials at Sagami’s head office have said that the prophylactics, which it bills as being 14 percent thinner than conventional ones, are worth US$1.5 million at Japanese retail prices. Freight forwarders say goods being shipped out of Malaysia go missing routinely and that many cases are inside jobs.
AUSTRALIA
Abbot puts foot in mouth
Gaffe-prone opposition leader Tony Abbott was engulfed in a new row yesterday over an unguarded comment about a soldier’s death in Afghanistan. Abbott hit out at media after TV station Channel Seven showed him saying: “Shit happens,” while discussing the death of Lance Corporal Jared MacKinney during an October visit to troops in the country. “It’s pretty obvious that, well, sometimes shit happens, doesn’t it?” Abbott said, during a filmed conversation with military officials. A furious Abbott accused Channel Seven of taking his remarks out of context and stared silently at journalist Mark Riley for some 20 seconds during an interview about the footage. “I’ve given you the response you deserve,” he said finally, when pressed for an answer. Abbott, who came within just one vote of becoming prime minister after elections in August last year returned a hung parliament, has a long history of verbal missteps. Last year Abbott, dubbed the “Mad Monk” after once training to become a priest, stunned voters by admitting his unscripted remarks were not to be trusted.”
TURKMENISTAN
Horses have beauty contest
Once prized by Alexander the Great for their speed and stamina, the country’s thoroughbred horses are being groomed for a series of beauty contests, ordered by a presidential decree published on Monday. President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, who enjoys sweeping powers in this desert nation of 5 million and is known for his deft horsemanship, said national beauty contests for the ancient Akhal Teke breed should be held every April. The best horses of the breed, distinguished by shimmering coats, long delicate necks and legs and popularly revered as “the wings of the Turkmen,” will be chosen “to promote the glory of the heavenly racehorse worldwide,” the decree said.
UNITED STATES
Buttocks jab proves fatal
A woman who had a cosmetic injection in her buttocks at a hotel near the Philadelphia airport died on Tuesday, prompting a police investigation. Detectives said the woman and three companions traveled from London and were staying at the Hampton Inn in Philadelphia. Two of them had traveled to the city in November to have their buttocks enlarged and, on Monday, one received another injection while the other had a hip augmentation. Detective Joseph Murray said the 20-year-old woman who had the buttocks injection later complained of chest pains and trouble breathing. She was then taken to the hospital where she died. Her name was not released.
UNITED STATES
Cull aims to boost safety
Officials enforced a goose no-fly zone around New York’s JFK and La Guardia airports last year by killing 1,676 of the birds blamed for endangering aircraft, a report said on Tuesday. The report from US Department of Agriculture details the 1,509 wild geese slaughtered in New York City itself and 167 more in nearby Nassau County last summer. The round-up and gassing of the birds removed 89 percent of the population surveyed in the environs of the two airports, according to the report, which was presented in November but only found and posted online by the New York Times on Tuesday. The war on geese started after the January 2009 drama in which a packed US Airways airliner collided with a flock of the migratory birds before safely crashing into the Hudson River.
UNITED STATES
Reunion proves difficult
The mother of a 23-year-old woman snatched from a New York City hospital when she was an infant says their reunion was a miracle but their relationship is difficult. Joy White told NBC television on Tuesday that she and her daughter Carlina White are like strangers. She says she wants to spend time with her so they can get to know each other. Joy White says she understands why her daughter, who lives in Atlanta, would want to continue her relationship with the people who raised her. Ann Pettway of Raleigh, North Carolina, is being held without bail on charges she kidnapped Carlina in 1987. The FBI says Pettway took the newborn after her own efforts at childbearing failed.
UNITED STATES
Court rejects term for bite
A New Jersey appeals court has rejected a 15-year prison sentence for a man convicted of biting off a police officer’s fingertip. Rafael Pichardo was convicted of aggravated assault for attacking Atlantic City officers during a 2007 confrontation at the Casbah nightclub in the Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort. While resisting arrest, Pichardo bit Officer Dean Dooley, severing the top of his gloved left index finger. A judge imposed the 15-year term, however, an appellate panel ruled on Tuesday it was too severe and ordered resentencing.
BOLIVIA
Film buffs set for marathon
A cineplex on Tuesday announced a film marathon competition likely to test the endurance of even the most avid cinephile. The challenge is to watch the most uninterrupted movies without leaving the theater and without falling asleep, said organizers of the contest sponsored by the Megacenter cinema concern. Megacenter’s chief executive Jose Luis Gomez, said that his cineplex would show continual screenings of movies and that any contestant leaving the theater for more than five minutes at a time would be eliminated. The winner is to receive one-year free pass, the company said.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of