World Briefs

The billionaire owner of Bruce Lee's final home hopes to build a museum to the martial arts legend, giving in to public calls to prevent the sale of the luxury house in a northern Hong Kong suburb for millions of dollars.

Philanthropist hotel and real estate tycoon Yu Panglin, 86, had put Bruce Lee's two-storey, 5,699-square-foot town house in an upscale, leafy Kowloon suburb up for sale but changed his mind, giving in to fans' desire for the site to be preserved.

Mr Yu told reporters yesterday he would donate the property to Hong Kong's government for use as a museum, unveiling a plan to expand the site into a memorial to a global icon. He would also raise capital for the site and all future profits would go to charity.

Bruce Lee, who died under mysterious circumstances in 1973 aged 32, starred in such kung fu classics as Fist of Fury, Game of Death and Enter the Dragon. Revered both by martial arts adherents and movie buffs the world over for popularising the kung fu cinematic genre, he also helped usher in a golden age of Hong Kong films in the 1960s.

Wax Hitler to return after head repairs

A waxwork of Adolf Hitler will return to Berlin's new Madame Tussauds as soon as experts have restored the head ripped off by a demonstrator on its opening day, the museum said yesterday.

Just minutes after the museum opened its doors to the public on Saturday, a 41-year-old man scuffled with security guards and leapt over a rope barrier into the dark corner where the dummy of a despondent-looking Hitler was seated. Shouting "No more war!" he proceeded to tear off the head.

The man, arrested but later released under investigation, told Germany's Bild am Sonntag newspaper he was angry about the exhibit; but in the end he carried out the attack to win a bet.

Royalists celebrate ousted king's birthday

Hundreds of royalists gathered at the gates of the summer residence of Nepal's ousted king Gyanendra, to celebrate his 61st birthday yesterday, but King Gyanendra, himself decided against coming out to greet his well-wishers.

Supporters, some of whom had marched the eight kilometres from Kathmandu to Nagargun, a hunting lodge, shouted "long live Gyanendra" and left birthday cards, marigolds and gifts with the police guarding the main gate before heading home.

One former aide of King Gyanendra said the dethroned monarch would spend the day quietly with his wife Komal in Nagargun, where he has lived since he was told to leave his palace in Kathmandu last month.

Yesterday's gathering was a contrast to past birthdays, when King Gyanendra stood in front of the main Narayanhiti palace in Kathmandu and greeted thousands of well-wishers and received gifts. But yesterday the main palace was quiet. About 150 loyalists gathered outside a Hindu temple near the palace and placed bouquets on a huge picture of King Gyanendra.

Water shipment held up by short pipe

A ship carrying 40,000 cubic metres of Greek water to drought-parched Cyprus has been unable to offload its cargo because of a short pipe, officials said yesterday.

The 1,400-metre pipeline connecting the tanker to shore proved to be 3.5 metres too short, causing a delay in the water being pumped into the island's water network. The water was to have been offloaded on Sunday.

"There was an issue with the alignment of the two ends of the pipeline," Michael Ioannides of Ocean Tankers, commissioned to bring the water to Cyprus from Greece, said. "We are talking about an additional 3.5-metre piece of pipe on land and the flexible pipeline underwater on the other end".

The vessel carrying the 40,000 cubic metres of water, more than double the quantity held in Cyprus's 17 main reservoirs, has been anchored off Cyprus for the past week.

Mao makes way for Olympics

China's central bank will drop former leader Mao Zedong's face from six million new 10 yuan (€0.93) notes to mark next month's Olympic Games.

One side of the new cyan-coloured note features the National Stadium, or Bird's Nest, in north Beijing, the main venue for the August 8-24 Games.

The "Chinese Seal, Dancing Beijing" Games emblem, designed to look like the red-inked Chinese character stamps used since imperial times, is positioned above the nest, with the capital's historic Temple of Heaven public park as a backdrop.

The reverse side features an ancient Greek marble statue of a discus-thrower, Discobolus, portraits of athletes and the numeral "2008", the bank said.