■ EGYPT
Phone confessors beware
The head of the Coptic Church has urged his congregation to refrain from confessing their sins by telephone, which could be tapped by security services, a newspaper reported on Tuesday. “Beware not to admit your sins over the telephone because all phone conversations are recorded by the state security services,” Pope Shenuda III was quoted as saying to worshippers during a sermon on Sunday by the independent Al-Masri Al-Yawm paper. The paper said Shenuda III was referring to Copts who are traveling abroad and those who have relocated to new addresses who often use the telephone to maintain contact with their local parish priest. Copts make up about 10 percent of the country’s 80 million largely Muslim population and are the Middle East’s largest Christian community.
■ UNITED KINGDOM
Whisky by-product fuels cars
Whisky lovers have another excuse to enjoy a dram — scientists on Tuesday unveiled a biofuel to help power cars developed from the by-products of the distillation process. Researchers at Edinburgh Napier University have developed the biofuel and filed a patent for the product, which they said could be used to fuel ordinary cars without any special adaptations. The biofuel, which has been developed during a two-year research project, uses the two main by-products from the whisky production process to produce butanol, which can then be used as fuel. The most likely way the biofuel would be used was by blending 5 percent or 10 percent of the product with gasoline or diesel.
■ GERMANY
Zombie fungus traced
The oldest evidence of a fungus that turns ants into zombies and makes them stagger to their death has been uncovered by scientists. The gruesome hallmark of the fungus’ handiwork was found on the leaves of plants that grew in Messel, near Darmstadt, 48 million years ago. According to the findings, parasitic fungi evolved the ability to control the creatures they infect in the distant past. The fungus, which is alive and well in forests today, latches on to carpenter ants as they cross the forest floor before returning to their nests high in the canopy. It then grows inside the ants and releases chemicals that affect their behavior. Infected ants move toward the underside of the leaf they are on and lock their mandibles in a “death grip” around the central vein, immobilizing themselves and locking the fungus in position. The scientists noticed that ants infected with the fungus, Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, bit into leaves with so much force they left a lasting mark.
■ UNITED STATES
Badu fined over video
Singer Erykah Badu agreed to pay a US$500 fine and serve six months probation for shedding her clothes in a video filmed at the site where former president John F. Kennedy was shot dead in 1963, the Dallas Morning News reported. Badu, a native of Dallas, paid the fine on Friday, a city spokesman told the Texas newspaper. In the video, titled Window Seat, Badu descends from a car and in broad daylight walks down the street shedding her clothes. Families and workers appear in the background stunned and surprised. The video, filmed in March, ends when Badu pretends she has been shot and snaps her head back. The Grammy award-winning singer was charged with disorderly conduct when tourists and visitors complained. Badu explained via a Twitter message that the video was a declaration against “groupthink.” The video was filmed in one take.
■ UNITED STATES
Autograph made permanent
A woman has had Paul McCartney’s signature permanently etched onto her body by a tattoo artist after the musical icon answered her pleas to sign her back. Rose Ann Belluso took a sign to McCartney’s show on Sunday in Philadelphia requesting he sign her back with a marker she’d brought along. When McCartney called her up on stage and obliged, the Downingtown woman decided to make it last forever. A tattoo artist at Extreme Ink Tattoo Parlor in West Chester went over the signature on Monday. Belluso says the painful procedure was a no-brainer after McCartney answered her request. Besides the birth of her two sons, Belluso says getting McCartney’s signature was the best experience of her life — and her first tattoo.
■ MEXICO
Gang hires ‘pretty’ hitwomen
A drug gang is hiring pretty young women to carry out killings to surprise its enemies, a suspected member of the vicious La Linea gang said in a video released on Tuesday. Around 30 women aged between 18 and 30 have in recent months learned how to carry out killings accompanied by hitmen, and most have killed people, suspect Rogelio Amaya said during a interrogation by federal police. The video of the interrogation was made public on Tuesday. “They’re pretty, good-looking, to help mislead opponents,” said Amaya, the suspected member of a gang of enforcers for the Juarez cartel in the country’s most violent city of Ciudad Juarez. The women operate in the same way as men and carry both light and heavy weapons, the suspect said. The gang was divided into “specialities,” including lookouts, killers and extortionists, and a specific person was responsible for hiring the women, he said.
■ UNITED KINGDOM
Weatherman causes storm
A weather presenter says he’s sorry after he was caught making an offensive gesture to a colleague on a live BBC broadcast. Tomasz Schafernaker was seen raising his middle finger at news reader Simon McCoy, who had joked that weather reports were sometimes less than accurate. The BBC said in a statement yesterday that it apologized for the incident, broadcast on Tuesday morning on the BBC News Channel. On his personal blog, Schafernaker says he had believed he was off-camera when he made the offending signal. He says he was “sorry for any offense that might have been caused.” Schafernaker, a meteorologist born in Gdansk, Poland, has presented national weather reports for the BBC since 2006.
■ SUDAN
Beastly plan for cities
The government of Southern Sudan says they have a UIS$10.1 billion plan to transform cities in the region — some of them into the shapes of animals. The announcement comes ahead of a scheduled January referendum on independence that is widely expected to pass. The proposal unveiled on Tuesday would redesign the southern capital of Juba and the 10 state capitals. Southern officials hope to model each regional capital after the flag of each state, including “Giraffe City” and “Pineapple City.” A new area outside of Juba would be made in the shape of a rhino, he said. Government officials didn’t explain how they would pay for the ambitious plans. The referendum would split the nation’s oil-rich south from the north.
Ten cheetah cubs held in captivity since birth and destined for international wildlife trade markets have been rescued in Somaliland, a breakaway region of Somalia. They were all in stable condition despite all of them having been undernourished and limping due to being tied in captivity for months, said Laurie Marker, founder of the Cheetah Conservation Fund, which is caring for the cubs. One eight-month-old cub was unable to walk after been tied up for six months, while a five-month-old was “very malnourished [a bag of bones], with sores all over her body and full of botfly maggots which are under the
BRUSHED OFF: An ambassador to Australia previously said that Beijing does not see a reason to apologize for its naval exercises and military maneuvers in international areas China set off alarm bells in New Zealand when it dispatched powerful warships on unprecedented missions in the South Pacific without explanation, military documents showed. Beijing has spent years expanding its reach in the southern Pacific Ocean, courting island nations with new hospitals, freshly paved roads and generous offers of climate aid. However, these diplomatic efforts have increasingly been accompanied by more overt displays of military power. Three Chinese warships sailed the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand in February, the first time such a task group had been sighted in those waters. “We have never seen vessels with this capability
A Japanese city would urge all smartphone users to limit screen time to two hours a day outside work or school under a proposed ordinance that includes no penalties. The limit — which would be recommended for all residents in Toyoake City — would not be binding and there would be no penalties incurred for higher usage, the draft ordinance showed. The proposal aims “to prevent excessive use of devices causing physical and mental health issues... including sleep problems,” Mayor Masafumi Koki said yesterday. The draft urges elementary-school students to avoid smartphones after 9pm, and junior-high students and older are advised not
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) attended a grand ceremony in Lhasa yesterday during a rare visit to Tibet, where he urged “ethnic unity and religious harmony” in a region where China is accused of human rights abuses. The vast high-altitude area on the country’s western edge, established as an autonomous region in 1965 — six years after the 14th Dalai Lama fled into exile — was once a hotbed for protest against Chinese Communist Party rule. Rights groups accuse Beijing’s leaders of suppressing Tibetan culture and imposing massive surveillance, although authorities claim their policies have fostered stability and rapid economic development in
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