Sat, Oct 24, 2009 page7

• World News Quick Take

  • AGENCIES
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  ■CHINA

  Official opposes ‘vulgarity’

  A top Communist Party official has vowed to take disciplinary action against party members caught hiring female escorts or visiting “vulgar venues,” state media said yesterday. The warning comes following a spate of criminal and corruption cases in which party officials have been caught using prostitutes, maintaining mistresses or engaging in illicit sexual affairs, the Global Times reported. “Party officials ought to stay away from vulgar venues and are not allowed to visit sanpei xiaojie [female escorts] for entertainment,” the paper quoted Li Yuanchao (李源潮), a member of the party’s powerful Politburo, as saying. Li said members violating his instructions would risk demerits in their work appraisals.

  ■AUSTRALIA

  Teen gains, loses license

  A teenager lost his driving license just 45 minutes after it was issued when he was clocked at 45kph over the speed limit on a Melbourne highway, police said yesterday. The 18-year-old man had his brand-new license suspended for six months and was fined A$421 (US$378). “I don’t think he quite realized the seriousness of traveling at that sort of speed,” senior constable Bob Kucia said.

  ■KYRGYZSTAN

  Bear attacks handlers

  One person was killed and another wounded on Thursday when a bear rehearsing a “bears on ice” show attacked his handlers at a circus in the capital Bishkek, circus officials said. The five-year-old bear, part of a troupe of the prestigious Russian state circus, attacked and killed a director for the visiting circus during rehearsals. The bear was later shot and killed by local police. Training bears to ice skate is a standard stunt in the Russian circus.

  ■BELGIUM

  Post Office doles out money

  There were red faces in the Post Office on Thursday after a banking blunder handed out bonanza payments to 50,000 unemployed people. The 40 million euro (US$60 million) mistake came after the country’s employment agency, CAPAC, organized a dummy run of a new payments scheme ahead of its introduction on Nov. 12. In the exercise, CAPAC sent a series of payment orders to the Post Office, which acts as the agency’s bank. The Post Office was meant to enter the details into a special test computer system, to make sure that CAPAC put the information in the correct format. Post Office staff somehow failed to notice that the transaction was a technical exercise, and proceeded to enter the details into the genuine payment system, transferring about 800 euros each to 48,860 lucky unemployed.

  ■ITALY

  Man tries hard to avoid wife

  A Sicilian builder transferred from prison to house arrest tried to get himself locked up again to escape arguments with his wife at home, media reported on Thursday. Santo Gambino, 30, did time for dumping hazardous waste before being moved to house arrest in Villabate, outside the Sicilian capital, Palermo, news agencies reported. Gambino went to the police station and asked to be put away again to avoid arguing with his wife, who accused him of failing to pay for the upkeep of their two children. Police charged him with violating the conditions of his sentence and made him go home and patch things up with his wife.

  ■BULGARIA

  Police arrest baby ring

  Police reported on Thursday that they had broken up a scheme for selling babies in Greece. The system operated by transporting pregnant women to Greece, where they gave birth to children, who were then sold. The interior ministry in Sofia said the gang had organized up to five such trips per year since 2006. The women were paid 5,000 euros (US$7,500) for their babies. The couple, who allegedly organized the business by taking a 3,000 euro cut, have been arrested. Authorities broke up a similar ring in June.

  ■FRANCE

  Muslim graves desecrated

  Officials said eight graves of Muslim soldiers who died for France in World War II have been desecrated in a village cemetery. Maurice Duhamel, mayor of Montjoie-Saint-Martin, said he was filing suit after Nazi symbols were discovered on Wednesday on the eight graves of Muslim soldiers in the 2nd Armored Division. President Nicolas Sarkozy on Thursday denounced the “particularly odious racist acts” and asked that those responsible be found and punished. Last week, the French Council for the Muslim Faith complained that those responsible for the desecration in December of some 500 Muslim soldiers’ graves in Arras, in the north, have yet to be identified.

  ■UNITED KINGDOM

  Bomb goes off in Belfast

  A bomb exploded at a British army base in Northern Ireland on Thursday, officials said, causing no injuries, but serving as a growing reminder of dissident Irish Republican activity in the British province. Nearby residents reported hearing a loud blast at 1am at the base of the British Territorial Army, a reserve force. Local media said civilian guards were on duty at the barracks at the time and no army personnel were believed to be inside.

  ■UNITED STATES

  Supporters feel for McCain

  Men who voted for Republican candidate John McCain in last year’s presidential election saw their testosterone levels fall significantly when they learned he had lost to Barack Obama, a study showed on Thursday. Saliva samples collected from 163 men on the evening of the election showed that voters for McCain and Obama had similar testosterone levels when polling stations closed on the east coast, but the levels in McCain backers fell when Obama was announced the winner. By contrast, testosterone levels among men who voted for Obama remained stable. “Political elections are dominance competitions. When men win a dominance competition, their testosterone levels rise or remain stable to resist a circadian decline; and when they lose, their testosterone levels fall,” said the study, published online by the Public Library of Science.

  ■UNITED KINGDOM

  ‘Air rage’ rises

  Disruptive behavior on British passenger aircraft rose 30 percent last year, with alcohol playing a significant part in what the media has dubbed “air rage.” Of nearly 3,500 significant incidents during the year until March, 44 were classified as serious, official figures showed. The most common age group involved was the 30-39 years bracket, and incidents spanned from violence to crew to smoking on board. Of the 44 reports classed as serious, 29 involved passengers being restrained and 13 involved aircraft diversions. “These incidents most commonly involved alcohol as a contributory factor, followed by conflict with other passengers and illness or suspected mental instability; there were a number of cases of threatening behavior and physical violence,” the Department of Transport said. However, the likelihood of the trip being disrupted is generally remote, working out at one in 24,000, compared with one in 35,000 the year before.

  ■MEXICO

  Escaped hippo killed

  A 1,100kg hippopotamus that escaped from a private zoo has been shot to death after more than a month on the run in the countryside. An official with the animal protection agency said on Thursday the hippo was shot at least twice the previous day near a river outside the town of Alamo in Veracruz state. Witnesses told reporters that police fired the shots while trying to capture it. Enrique Lobato, the animal protection official, said the hippo escaped from a ranch early last month. He said the owner had a permit to keep the animal but faces fines for not keeping it in the right living conditions.

  ■UNITED STATES

  La-Z-Boy driver guilty

  A Minnesota man has pleaded guilty to driving his motorized La-Z-Boy chair while drunk. A criminal complaint said 62-year-old Dennis LeRoy Anderson told police he left a bar in the northern Minnesota town of Proctor on his chair after drinking eight or nine beers. Prosecutors said Anderson’s blood alcohol content was 0.29, more than three times the legal limit, when he crashed into a parked vehicle in August last year. He was not seriously injured. Police said the chair was powered by a converted lawnmower and had a stereo and cup holders. Sixth Judicial District Judge Heather Sweetland on Monday sentenced him to 180 days in jail and two years of probation, the Duluth News Tribune reported. His attorney, David Keegan, did not immediately return a call for comment.
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