World Briefs

Poland is opening a museum today to exhibit the remains of a previously unknown dinosaur, an ancestor of Tyrannosaurus Rex.

Since an official announcement of the find last week, palaeontologists have been flocking to the brickyard where Polish Science Academy scientists dug up an incomplete skeleton of a predator dinosaur that lived around 200 million years ago.

Grzegorz Niedzwiedzki, one of the discoverers, said, "Not only have we found our dinosaur here, but also a mammal-type reptile, dicynodon, and some remains of other flying dinosaurs as well as plants. And it's all just five metres deep."

Now, foreign scientists and students from all around Poland have travelled to the village of Lipie Slaskie to test their luck at the brickyard where discoveries are made every few minutes while digging through the layers of clay.

Given the working name Dragon, the dinosaur was around five metres long and moved on two legs. Its longest teeth were seven centimetres long.

Music CD sparks Israeli alert

When Yasmin Sabah was given a music CD by a friend, she never imagined it would make her the target of a clandestine operation by Israeli security services.

Ms Sabah, a 22-year-old nurse, said the Defence Ministry placed her under surveillance last month after a passer-by, drawn by a "for sale" sign on her car, reported that they had seen a CD in it with the handwritten title: "Jericho IV - Nuclear Modified".

Israel is believed to have developed nuclear-tipped missiles known as Jerichos but Ms Sabah said yesterday she did not know the origins of the CD's provocative title. The CD had recordings of songs in Hebrew, English and Spanish.

Interviewed by Israel Radio, she said two security agents posing as prospective car-buyers arranged to meet her and then "sat in my car, looked at the disc, and then listened to it song by song, making sure there is nothing hidden in it".

The agents took the CD and have yet to return it, she said.

Croc in park sparks hunt

A crocodile, spotted earlier this week in a suburban park near a housing enclave in densely populated Singapore, has sparked a hunt by authorities. Experts said that the one metre long reptile seen at Pasir Ris Park is most likely a saltwater crocodile, more commonly found in neighbouring Malaysia and Indonesia.

Civil servant K.C. Wong, who was at the scene with his son, told the Straits Times newspaper: "I wanted to see the crocodile in its natural habitat before someone does something to it. After all, Singapore has so little wildlife left."

But experts urged the public to stay clear of the toothy animal.

"You just never know about wild animals," Robin Lee, manager of Singapore's Long Kuan Hung Crocodile Farm and a crocodile-hunter, said.

Inflatable church on the beach

Catholic nuns and priests in Italy are following their flocks to the beach this summer, establishing an inflatable church and a beach-convent in the sands to lure sunbathers.

The 30-metre long blow-up church - staffed by priests ready to take confession - will debut on Saturday on the Adriatic coast in the Molise region.

"There will be four or five people singing, with music about God," said Chiara Facci with Catholic group Sentinelli del Mattino. Night time activities, which will not include Mass, will run from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m.

On the Mediterranean coast, nuns from a convent near Naples have relocated to beach cabins to join holidaymakers saying the rosary while an adjoining altar was set up under two tents.

"The concept of a beach-convent is something that is appreciated by vacationers and the nuns themselves," priest Antonio Rungi, who helped spearhead the initiative.

Olympics swimmer goes nude

US swimmer Amanda Beard unveiled a demure nude photograph of herself urging women "Don't wear fur" yesterday, hours after Chinese authorities had prevented her from staging a news conference for "safety" reasons.

The Athens 2004 Olympic gold medallist said she was determined to carry on even after plainclothes police banned her scheduled news conference at a Beijing hotel "for our safety".

Ms Beard, 26, went ahead with her campaign, only at a different location. Instead of the hotel, she appeared in front of reporters and TV cameras outside the heavily fenced Olympic athletes' village.

"What happens with animals when their skin is ripped from their bodies when they are still alive, it's heartbreaking for me," she said.