World Briefs

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was fêted by Russian media on Sunday for saving a TV crew from an attack by a Siberian tiger in the wilds of the Far East.

The 55-year-old former KGB spy, taking a break from lambasting the West over Georgia, apparently saved the crew while on a trip to a national park to see how researchers monitor the tigers in the wild.

Just as he was arriving with a group of wildlife specialists to see a trapped Amur tiger, it escaped and ran towards a nearby camera crew. The country's main TV station said Mr Putin quickly shot the beast and sedated it with a tranquilliser gun.

"Vladimir Putin not only managed to see the giant predator up close but also saved our television crew," a presenter on Rossiya television said at the start of the main evening news.

Fake euros in Colombia

Police have seized fake euro bank-notes with a face value of more than 11 million euros in Colombia, the largest seizure to date of counterfeit euros outside Europe.

Colombian and European police raided a clandestine print shop in the capital Bogota last week, where counterfeits of 200 and 500 euro notes were being made, the Hague-based police agency Europol said in a statement.

The person running the print shop was arrested and the fake notes were seized, it said. Europol said the bank notes were of good quality and were intended for distribution in Europe.

The European Central Bank (ECB) said in July that the amount of fake euro banknotes was on the rise, with the amount seized jumping more than 15 per cent in the first six months of this year. It said most were bogus 50 and 20 euro notes.

Nigerian with 86 wives seeks more

An 84-year-old Nigerian Muslim preacher with 86 wives intends to marry more women despite an order from local Islamic chiefs to immediately divorce all but four of them.

Nigerian newspapers reported that Mohammed Bello, who lives in central Nigeria with his wives and at least 170 children, was ordered by local religious elders to divorce 82 of his wives by Sunday or leave the area.

Some newspapers said yesterday he had agreed at a meeting with local officials to divorce all but four of the women. But his spokesman, Mohammed Tahir, denied there had been any such deal.

"He is not going to divorce any of his wives. Rather he is going to marry more," Tahir said.

"Since he married those women, none of them or his children have ever gone out to beg for food or money. He has not broken any law and none of his wives have committed any offences that would be a basis for divorce," he added.

Coffin protest

Environmentalists erected a 28-foot-tall coffin to protest against plans to build a thermo-electric powerplant they say will pollute Chile's southern coastline.

The 750 MW plant to be built in Chile's El Maule region by AES Gener, a unit of US power company AES Corp., is aimed at helping reverse the South American country's massive power deficit.

But some 400 activists turned out in this fishing village 465 kilometres south of the capital of Santiago to unveil a coffin they said was the world's largest.

The protesters say the plant, which will be fired by coal shipped from Australia, will foul the air, pollute artisan fishing waters and poison groundwater in an area of forests.

Chile is one of Latin America's star economies, driven by sales of its No. 1 export copper, but the country's growth has been limited by dependence on its neighbours for fuel.

Palin says daughter, 17, pregnant

The 17-year-old daughter of Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin is pregnant, Mrs Palin said yesterday in an announcement intended to knock down rumours by liberal bloggers that she faked her own pregnancy to cover up for her child.

Bristol Palin, one of Alaska Gov. Palin's five children, is about five months pregnant and is going to keep the child and marry the father, the Palins said in a statement released by the campaign of Republican presidential candidate John McCain.

"We have been blessed with five wonderful children whom we love with all our hearts and who mean everything to us," the Palins' statement said.

"Our beautiful daughter Bristol came to us with news that as parents we knew would make her grow up faster than we had ever planned. As Bristol faces the responsibilities of adulthood, she knows she has our unconditional love and support," the Palins said. They asked the media to respect the young couple's privacy.