World briefs

Thousands of Brazilians clamoured for a piece of gangster chic on Tuesday, jostling their way into a sale of goods ranging from flat-screen TVs to designer underwear confiscated from a convicted Colombian drug lord.

Police, overwhelmed by the size of the crowd at the gates of Sao Paulo's posh Jockey Club, fired pepper spray and pushed some people to the ground as the first bargain-hunters snapped up items for as little as 60 US cents.

"I'm interested in seeing various items and I'm curious to see what the life of a drug trafficker was like, how ostentatious it was," said an interior designer who was waiting in line with about 5,000 others.

Juan Carlos Ramirez Abadia, who the US says was one of the most powerful leaders of Colombia's cocaine cartels, last week received a 30-year prison sentence. His wife was also jailed.

Steam cleans thieves

A dry-cleaning shop owner in Papua New Guinea has found a unique way of encouraging thieves to clean up their behaviour: giving them a steam cleaning.

Police in the town of Lae said a 20-year-old man suffered burns and scalding to his abdomen, chest and back after the owner turned a steam cleaner on him after he was caught stealing pants worth $5.50.

"The owner has done this to many people already," a police spokesman said yesterday but the police seemed unconcerned about the radical punishment and released the thief after being assured he had learned his lesson.

Tourist misnomer

Two women led themselves on a wild goose chase from Italy to Munich after arranging to meet their niece in Monaco - which in Italian can mean either the tiny principality on the French Riviera, or Bavaria's capital.

Called Monaco di Baviera in Italian, the city is known as Muenchen in High German, and Minga in the local Bavarian dialect.

The two women from the Dominican Republic, had driven across the Alps from in northern Italy to collect the 14-year-old from the Paris-Munich train, but started to panic and went to the police when the girl failed to appear. As the two spoke only Italian and Spanish, and because the niece had no mobile phone, it took police one-and-a-half hours to establish that she had actually gone to the Mediterranean. Finally, the women got back in their car and set off on the 840-kilometre journey to Monaco.

Record music donation

A widow in her 50s has given 4,000 vinyl records spanning every classical genre to her local Oxfam shop in Tavistock, Devon.

The largest music donation in the charity's history, worth an estimated £25,000, ranges from Bach and Haydn to Stravinsky and Stockhausen and will keep the shop stocked for three years. "It is amazing. I can't think of a classical genre that is missing," said an Oxfam volunteer. "It is all there - all your big figures from the 18th and 19th century, your 20th century unlistenable nightmares by Stockhausen, avant garde, opera, unaccompanied violin. Virtually every genre is covered."

Rubber-soled tanks

Russian tanks will be fitted with rubber pads to protect the cobble stones on Red Square when they take part in the Victory Day parade for the first time since the fall of the Soviet Union.

Tanks and mobile rockets rumbling past the Kremlin were a feature of the parades on May 9 in Soviet times. Post-Communist Russia slimmed down the parade to troops and light vehicles.

This year, more than 110 tanks, missiles and artillery pieces will join the parade, along with 32 aircraft. The decision to revive the tradition is regarded by some observers as a sign the Kremlin is flexing its military muscles.

The tanks and other hardware will roll past the Kremlin walls where the embalmed body of the Bolshevik ruler, Vladimir Lenin, is still on view inside a marble mausoleum.

Firm fined for lewd ad

Two women kissing in an advertisement led Singapore to fine a cable operator for breaching guidelines on sexuality in the conservative city-state. Singapore's Media Development Authority, which regulates and censors media and the arts, said yesterday it fined StarHub $7,246 for airing a commercial for a song that featured "romanticised scenes" of lesbians kissing and portrayed the relationship as "acceptable".

The music video shows an intimate kissing scene before one of the women rejects her boyfriend at the end of the clip.

Singapore bans sex between men and any man found to have committed an act of "gross indecency" with another man could be jailed for up to two years. There is no legislation on sex between women. Some homosexuals have deemed the ban as discriminatory.