World briefs

Ballot stuffing took on a new meaning in Italy's parliamentary election yesterday when a man ate his ballot paper in protest at the country's politicians.

Police in Naples said they had charged the 41-year-old businessman with destroying election materials. He said all Italian politicians and politics "are crap" and that he was protesting "against the system".

Senators take no chances

The band of senators who ousted Haiti's latest government took no chances. They stayed together, ate together and even slept in the same place to keep defection or mishap from derailing their plan.

The 16 opposition senators announced a day in advance they intended to fire Prime Minister Jacques Edouard Alexis, the head of a coalition Cabinet that was supposed to bring stability to the poor Caribbean nation whose intrigues were captured in Graham Greene's novel The Comedians.

But in Haiti's quicksand politics, replete with murky, shifting alliances, anything can happen. "So we decided to spend the night together," said Senator Evaliere Beauplan.

Overseas Democrats meet

Sam Garst grinned broadly as he looked at the more than 100 Democrats crowded into a Vancouver meeting room over the weekend for the global convention of the US party's overseas branch.

"At the first global convention we had in 1992, we had 20 people show up. This room is packed, and it's exciting," said Mr Garst, a former chairman of Democrats Abroad, which was selecting its final delegate slate for the party's national convention in August to nominate a presidential candidate.

Democrats gathered in Vancouver for a two-day meeting said they were energised by the tight race between presidential contenders Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, and their own awareness of world fears about US foreign policy and the faltering American economy.

Rice's advice to Steinmeier

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had a little advice over the weekend for her visiting German counterpart, Frank-Walter Steinmeier: It's best not to throw out the first pitch at an American baseball game.

Many fans booed President George W. Bush when he threw the ceremonial first pitch on opening night at Washington's new baseball stadium, Nationals Park - even though his pitch was a decent one and he is a former owner of the Texas Rangers.

"I would tell him not to do that," Ms Rice said, prompting laughter from reporters at a news conference after one asked about Mr Steinmeier's plans to throw out the first pitch at a game in Boston between the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees.

"Good luck Frank, I will be looking for the YouTube version," Ms Rice said, referring to the popular video-sharing website where videos of fan reaction to Mr Bush's appearance were posted.

Cocaine shift to Europe

The euro's strength against the dollar may be contributing to a decline in availability of cocaine in the US and a rise in Europe, the US anti-drugs tsar said over the weekend.

The past year has seen falls in purity of cocaine in the US, rising prices and a decline in volumes seized at the southwestern border, John Walters said in Brussels.

At the same time, "Europe has seen, some of the EU countries, enormous increases (in availability)", he told a news briefing after meeting EU officials, without giving estimates.

"There have been speculations that the power and strength of the euro and the cost of cocaine here in Europe have been the reason here for the movement - it's more profitable and it's a better currency exchange," he said.

Rare foray to Greek south

Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat crossed a newly opened checkpoint over the weekend that has separated Greeks and Turks on the island for decades, a signal of warming ties between the two communities.

The street reopened on April 3 after almost half a century of being barricaded, an enduring symbol of the divided capital, whose Greek and Turkish Cypriot quarters are separated by a UN buffer zone.

"I can't remember the last time I came... in my childhood maybe,"

Mr Talat said as he crossed into the Greek Cypriot sector of Ledra Street.

Mr Talat, who said he crossed over on the spur of the moment, was welcomed by scores of Greek Cypriots who emerged from their shops in the teeming commercial area to shake his hand.

Smuggled iguanas in fake leg

A Californian man faces jail after being convicted of smuggling stolen rare iguanas into the US inside his prosthetic leg, justice officials over the weekend.

Jereme James, 34, was convicted on two counts of smuggling and possessing endangered animals and is due to be sentenced on July 14, a statement from the US Attorney's Office in Los Angeles said.

Prosecutors said Mr James stole three baby Fiji Island banded iguanas from an ecological preserve while on a trip to the South Pacific islands in 2002 and smuggled them by concealing them in the compartment of a prosthetic leg.

The iguanas are threatened with extinction because of habitat loss and are considered an endangered species.