World Briefs

Hundreds of people bade farewell yesterday to Tempelhof airport, a massive Nazi-built landmark in the heart of the German capital.

Dubbed "the mother of all airports" by architect Sir Norman Foster, Tempelhof dominates a huge stretch of land the size of New York's Central Park. A functioning airstrip since 1923, its monolithic limestone terminal building was built by forced labourers between 1936 and 1941 on the orders of Hitler's architect Albert Speer.

The airport became a powerful symbol of the Cold War when Soviet forces prevented supplies from getting into West Berlin in 1948. The West responded by airlifting more than two million tonnes of food and other goods into Tempelhof for nearly a year.

Its fate was sealed in April after a referendum to prevent its closure failed because of low turnout. Even Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke out against shutting it down.

The last planes will fly out of Tempelhof just before midnight today. It is unclear what will happen to the site, which still stirs strong emotions with many Berliners.

Pub serves faeces flavoured ice-cream

A bitter row has broken out between one of Sydney's largest tourist pubs and a family who accused chefs of serving human excrement in their gelato.

State government food minister Ian Macdonald confirmed yesterday that frozen faecal matter had been found in a serving of chocolate gelato offered to placate pub patron Steve Whyte and his wife Jessica, who became "violently ill" after eating it.

"The stench went through my nostrils, I retched and spat it into the napkin," Jessica Whyte told the Daily Telegraph newspaper.

The tainted sweet was allegedly served up at the Coogee Bay Hotel, one of Sydney's largest and most popular beachfront hotels, off Bondi Beach. The pub has denied serving excrement to the Whytes after they complained they were unable to hear a televised football game due to loud music, with both the chef and restaurant manager volunteering for DNA tests to prove their innocence.

The argument over accusations of "kitchen revenge" has shocked Australians.

Court allows Sarkozy voodoo doll

A French court yesterday rejected President Nicolas Sarkozy's demand for a ban on a Sarkozy doll and voodoo manual that encourages readers to stick pins in it.

The doll is emblazoned with some of Mr Sarkozy's most famous quotes, including his words to a bystander who refused to shake his hand at an agricultural exhibition last year. The manual recommends planting pins in that quote and others.

The court said the voodoo doll was "within the authorised boundaries of freedom of expression and the right to humour". It rejected Mr Sarkozy's argument that the doll violated his right to his own image.

Publishing company K&B, which has issued 20,000 copies of the manual and doll, will be allowed to continue selling the items.

Saudi Arabia's first women's university

Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah yesterday launched the construction of the first women-only university in the conservative Islamic state.

The Princess Noura Bint Abdelrahman University for Girls will offer courses in subjects like medicine, pharmacy, management, computer sciences and languages that women find difficulty in studying in normal universities where strict gender segregation is enforced.

Saudi Arabia's powerful religious establishment has in the past resisted efforts to widen education for women and put them in the workplace but King Abdullah is pushing social reforms to increase women's employment.

The country of 25 million has state schools for girls and some private colleges for women.

BBC suspends TV stars on radio prank

The British Broadcasting Corporation suspended two of its most successful and highly paid presenters yesterday after they verbally abused a 78-year-old comedy actor in a radio stunt that went wrong.

Russell Brand, a comedian with a burgeoning Hollywood career, and Jonathan Ross, one of the most highly paid presenters on British TV, were suspended for a "gross lapse of taste" during a radio show, when the pair called and left insulting messages on the answer-phone of Andrew Sachs, a comedy actor best known for playing the hapless Spanish waiter Manuel in the British comedy series "Fawlty Towers" in the 1970s.

In the off-the-cuff calls, the pair joked about how Mr Brand had slept with Mr Sach's 23-year-old granddaughter, and how when Mr Sachs heard the messages he was likely to kill himself.

The programme was broadcast on October 18 and initially attracted little attention but following coverage in the rest of the media, complaints rocketed with more than 18,000 people registering their disgust.