World Briefs

When Don Corleone's daughter got married in the film The Godfather, the guests kissed his hand and he dispensed favours because no Sicilian Mafia boss could refuse a request on his daughter's wedding day.

But when the real thing took place in Corleone, the Sicilian hill town made famous by the movie, the Mafia's former "boss of bosses" Salvatore 'Toto' Riina could only read about it in newspapers yesterday from inside prison.

Lucia Riina, his 28-year-old daughter, got married on Wednesday and, in the absence of her father, was given away by her brother, Giuseppe.

Giuseppe, who was freed from jail in February after serving time for Mafia crimes, also thanked their father, whose Mafia nickname was "the Beast" because of his ruthlessness. "You should be paying for the (media) rights," Giuseppe joked to reporters, according to La Repubblica newspaper.

Boy bites vicious dog

An 11-year-old boy is enjoying a flash of fame in Brazil after biting a pitbull that attacked him as he played in his uncle's back yard, local media reported yesterday.

Gabriel Almeida, who lives on the outskirts of Belo Horizonte in the state of Minas Gerais, broke a canine tooth when he bit into the dog's neck to fend off an attack. Since then, he has been pampered in the studios of several TV stations, where he has been recounting his ordeal.

"I grabbed him by the neck and bit," he told O Globo newspaper. "It's no big deal. "It's better to lose a tooth than to lose your life."

He was freed when bystanders pulled the dog off him and he needed four stitches in his arm.

Narnia website must be given up

A Scottish schoolboy must surrender a web address tied to the Narnia fantasy world, which his father says he gave him as a present, after a ruling by a United Nations arbitrator, an official report said yesterday.

The UN's patent and copyright agency Wipo said the independent arbitrator had ordered transfer of the site, www.narnia.mobi, to the estate of C.S. Lewis, late author of the popular Chronicles of Narnia books.

"We are shocked by the decision," Gillian, the mother of 11-year-old Comrie Saville-Smith told the Scotsman newspaper in Edinburgh after they were given advance notice of the ruling on Wednesday.

"We put up a spirited fight because we wanted to prove that you do not have to hand something over just because someone richer and more powerful tells you to do so," she said, according to a report on the Scotsman website.

Health checks for ambulances

Hong Kong's aging ambulances are to receive emergency checkups after a series of breakdowns, with half the 250-strong fleet expected to be replaced. The move comes after drivers failed to start an ambulance in a crowded northern suburb.

Four such breakdowns in four days contributed to the death of a 60-year-old kidney patient and delayed the delivery to hospital of accident victims and an old woman with breathing difficulties.

Children jailed for armed hold-up

Three Hong Kong children have been jailed for more than three years for the armed hold-up of a jewellery shop, with the court saying the stiff sentence was in the public interest.

Disguised with masks and caps, the two boys and one girl, all aged 14, threatened staff at the shop with knives in September last year, grabbing gold necklaces, bracelets and pendants valued at more than HK$1 million (€82,000).

Sentencing the three, now aged 15, the judge said the offence was too serious to warrant a training centre term despite the age of the three.

Nude woman uses flag as saddle

A naked model photographed using Peru's flag as a saddle on a horse will face charges that could put her in jail for up to four years for offending patriotic symbols.

The suggestive shot of Leysi Suarez, whose main job is dancing for the band Alma Bella, was splashed on the cover of DFarandula magazine and has caused a political uproar as Peru prepares to celebrate the 187th anniversary of its independence from Spain on Monday.

"These are patriotic symbols that demand total respect, and using them improperly requires punishment," Defence Minister Antero Flores told reporters.