World briefs

A ban on grumpiness, gossiping, mini-skirts and rudeness is what the doctor orders to improve patient care in Serbia's hospitals, according to new rules issued by the country's Health Ministry.

The rules, posted on the ministry's website, say staff are not allowed to criticise their hospital or their superiors, and should not accept gifts for their services.

Hospital staff are often bribed with cash or gifts for attention or better treatment.

Serbia's public health system crumbled during the conflicts of the 1990s, with patients' relatives having to provide everything from bandages and antibiotics to food.

Anti-impotence pill for pilots

A drug used to treat impotence could help Israeli fighter pilots operate at high altitude.

According to the Israeli military's official magazine, a retired general plans to present to the air force the results of a study he conducted on Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. He found that tadalafil, the active ingredient in Cialis tablets, improved breathing in a thin atmosphere.

"The study's findings justify the continuation of tests with drugs of this type in low oxygen environments," an unnamed air force officer told Bamahaneh, the military's weekly magazine.

City threatened with TV remote

A drunken man's threat to blow up half a city with his television remote control forced Australian police to declare a state of emergency at a luxury golf resort, a court in Brisbane heard yesterday.

Geoffrey Martin Fryatt, 57, a resident of the Fairways Golf and Lifestyle Retreat in Brisbane, was arrested by elite paramilitary police after terrifying neighbours with a knife and threatening to detonate a store of chemicals with the TV remote.

"One push of the button will blow up half of Brisbane," Mr Fryatt shouted in the standoff last May before police in the Queensland state capital opened fire with rubber bullets.

Naked parade punished

Rio de Janeiro's Carnival jury has named parade group Beija-Flor (Hummingbird) champion for the second year running, while another samba group was relegated to the second division after its dancing queen paraded naked.

The 4,200-strong Sao Clemente samba school, which kicked off two nights of parades on Sunday night, lost its place among the 12 top league groups as judges punished it by trimming precious points for "exposed genitalia".

Viviane Castro, 25, a model and dancer, had lost her original tapasexo - a small triangle of glitter used to cover the most intimate parts. An improvised substitute glued between her legs right before the show also fell off on the parade strip. She symbolised native Indians as they appeared to the Portuguese.

Although bare-breasted, almost naked beauty queens run galore in Rio's Carnival, full nudity is forbidden.

Wife squashed to death

A man in Germany was jailed for five years after he sat on his wife during a domestic dispute and squashed her so badly that she later died.

The 128-kg man "sat on his wife's chest for at least two minutes and broke her ribs in 18 places", said Jan-Michael Seidel, a spokesman for the court in the northern town of Hildesheim. "It was quite deliberate."

The woman, who was half her husband's weight, died from her injuries less than a month later. The 50-year-old man was charged with grievous bodily harm leading to death.

Home buyers find owner dead

An estate agent who took a prospective buyer to view a house in central England found the owner hanging dead in a closet, the agency said yesterday.

It was the first viewing of the £350,000 house which had been on the market for a week. The owner was hanging from a belt inside a walk-in closet in the main bedroom.

"It was quite a shock," said a spokesman for estate agents Hartleys. "Our agent quickly ushered everyone out, locked the property and called the authorities."

The owner, a single man in his 40s, had inherited the house from his mother who died recently, the estate agents said.

Apology for hiring private jet

A French junior minister has apologised paying €138,000 to hire a private jet so he could skip a commercial flight to have a drink with President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Satirical paper Le Canard Enchaine said Christian Estrosi, junior minister for France's overseas territories, was due to fly to Washington on January 23 on an Air France flight with an 11-person team for a conference on coral reefs the next day. But then he discovered Mr Sarkozy had arranged for drinks with long-term supporters after the flight was due to take off.

He insisted he attend the party but the flight was the last to Washington and, with no government planes at hand, his office booked the jet, the paper said.