World Briefs

The Vatican's chief astronomer says there is no conflict between believing in God and in the possibility of "extraterrestrial brothers".

"In my opinion this possibility (of life on other planets) exists," said Fr Jose Gabriel Funes, a 45-year-old Jesuit priest, head of the Vatican Observatory and a scientific adviser to Pope Benedict.

"How can we exclude that life has developed elsewhere," he said in an interview, explaining that the large number of galaxies with their own planets made this possible.

Asked if he was referring to beings similar to humans or even more evolved than humans, he said: "Certainly, in a universe this big you can't exclude this hypothesis". He said he saw no conflict between belief in such beings and faith in God.

"Just as there is a multiplicity of creatures on earth, there can be other beings, even intelligent, created by God. This is not in contrast with our faith because we can't put limits on God's creative freedom," he said.

Fr Funes, who runs the observatory which is based south of Rome and in Arizona, held out the possibility that the human race might actually be the "lost sheep" of the universe.

"There could be (other beings) who remained in full friendship with their creator," he said.

Polish PM smoked pot

Former US President Bill Clinton famously took marijuana and did not inhale but Poland's Prime Minister has no such qualms.

Donald Tusk told the Polish edition of the Newsweek magazine he smoked marijuana while living in a workers' hostel during martial law in the 1980s. It is possibly the first confession of marijuana use by a leader from ex-communist eastern Europe.

Asked if he refrained from inhaling, Mr Tusk said: "I would never use that hypocritical Clintonian phrase, but this is really nothing worth talking about. I never took drugs except as a juvenile stunt. Nevertheless, it is nothing to be proud of," Mr Tusk told reporters.

Mr Tusk, a historian who became premier last October, said he had never tried to conceal his youthful drug taking from the public.

Abuses eight of own children

A 54-year-old German went on trial yesterday charged with sexually abusing eight of his own children, a court in the city of Trier said.

Prosecutors in the western city have accused the man of 97 counts of serious sexual abuse, including one of rape, against four daughters and four sons in the period 1991-2007. The children were born between 1979 and 1994.

The court documents showed the suspect, a German citizen who had immigrated to the country with his family, may have abused one of his sons when the victim was as young as seven. According to the prosecution, the man sometimes threatened to harm the children or their mother if they spoke to others of what he had done.

At other times he asked them for forgiveness, saying he was compelled to act out of illness. Local daily the Trierischer Volksfreund said the suspect was a jobless trucker who had fathered 14 children in total.

'Snake man' slithers out of prison cell

A man has escaped from his Austrian jail cell by squeezing through a food hatch in the door, police said yesterday.

The 19-year old Kosovan, who weighed less than 55 kilos was being held at the prison in Linz for entering the country illegally, police spokesman Alexander Niederwimmer told APA news agency.

How he got through two further doors or possibly over the prison wall is being investigated, said Mr Niederwimmer, calling the escapee "a snake man".

Wedding fireworks land groom in jail

Bridegroom Kedir Mohamed wanted his wedding day to go with a bang and decided to celebrate by letting off firecrackers after the ceremony.

However, it turned into damp squib when he was arrested for disturbing the peace in Bechena in northern Ethiopia on Sunday, the weekly Reporter newspaper said.

The reception was cancelled and the newly-wed spent his wedding night in police custody.

Weighed more than a truck

Manuel Uribe hopes to get out of the house in the suburb of San Nicolas de los Garza, in Monterrey, Mexico next month for only the third time in six, bedridden years to celebrate his 43rd birthday.

Still too heavy to move his swollen legs, Mr Uribe, who weighed more than a small truck in January 2006, has lost 235 kilos on a diet of grapefruits, egg-white only omelets, fish, chicken, vegetables and peanuts.

He now weighs 330 kilos.