World Briefs

Police have charged a 43-year-old man with possessing explosive materials and a Nazi handbook following his arrest last week at Lowestoft railway station in Suffolk.

Neil Lewington, from Reading, is accused of travelling illegally from Reading to Lowestoft with two improvised explosive devices, firelighters, seven timers, four containers of sodium chlorate weed killer and three tennis balls.

The charges accuse Mr Lewington of carrying the items for the "commission, preparation or instigation of an act of terrorism." He is also charged over his possession of a Waffen SS UK members' handbook, a book called Counter Bomb, a folder of drawings and handwritten notes and other notebooks.

He appeared at Westminster Magistrates Court yesterday charged with 10 terrorism offences and one offence under the Explosives Act. He spoke only to confirm his name and address and was remanded to appear at the Old Bailey for a preliminary hearing on November 28.

UN headquarters in anti-smoking drive

The UN General Assembly has ordered Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to put an end to smoking at UN headquarters in New York, widely seen as a tobacco safe haven in an otherwise smoke-free metropolis.

The assembly told Ban to implement a ban on smoking and on the sale of tobacco products inside the building, Enrique Yeves, spokes-man for General Assembly President Miguel D'Escoto Brockmann, said.

He said the demand came in a non-binding resolution passed unanimously by the 192 UN member states this week. "It is up to the secretariat now... to decide what kind of realistic measures can be taken for this to be implemented," Yeves told reporters.

Naked major with women's underwear

A male Japanese air force major caught naked while shopping for women's underwear has been suspended from his duties for 10 days, a spokesman at his base said yesterday.

The man, on his way home from a late-night farewell party for a colleague in early September, stripped off his clothes behind a convenience store before going in and buying panties and tights.

"He had just his wallet and his shoes on him," said the spokesman from the Matsushima air base in Miyagi, northern Japan. "He thought it would be funny if he went into the store stark naked, that it would surprise people."

There was no one else in the store but the store clerk, who called the police shortly after the man left the store. Papers were filed against him on suspicion of indecent exposure.

The incident follows a series of scandals for Japan's military. The air force's top general was sacked last week for saying Japan was not an aggressor in World War II, angering China and South Korea where bitter memories remain over Tokyo's past military aggression.

Obama soon to be the butt of jokes

They love him now, but America's razor-tongued, left-leaning comedians say President-elect Barack Obama will soon be the butt of jokes.

Satirical cartoonist Ted Rall said he couldn't wait to move on from Republican President George W. Bush.

"Making fun of George Bush is so easy - it's just kindergarten stuff," Mr Rall complained at a post-election comedy discussion panel. "Doing Obama is going to be so much more fun."

Satirical newspaper The Onion is already plunging ahead into the era of Obama humour. The latest issue carries this story under the headline Black Man Given Nation's Worst Job.

"African-American man Barack Obama, 47, was given the least-desirable job in the entire country Tuesday when he was elected President of the United States of America... As part of his duties, the black man will have to spend four to eight years cleaning up the messes other people left behind."

Jogged with fox locked to arm

A woman jogger ran for a mile with a rabid fox clamped to her arm before locking the animal in the trunk of her car and racing to hospital for treatment, police said.

Michelle Felicetta was out running on a trail at the base of Granite Mountain near Prescott, northern Arizona, when she came face-to-face with the fox in a clearing, Yavapai County Sheriff's Office said. The woman attempted to back away from the animal but as she did so the fox lunged and sank its teeth into her feet. After she grabbed the animal by the neck the fox bit Ms Felicetta on the arm and would not release his grip. The quick-thinking jogger realised she would need to keep the animal for testing, so she ran back to her car where she managed to prise its jaws open before throwing it into the trunk and driving to hospital.

The fox also bit an animal control officer who attempted to remove it from Felicetta's car. Both Felicetta and the animal officer will now have to undergo a series of vaccinations for treatment.

"This fox made eye contact with me and started walking towards me," Felicetta later told KPHO local television. "That's when I knew something was really wrong."

Arrested for calling police 7,177 times

Japanese police arrested a woman for making more than 7,000 emergency telephone calls because an officer did not take her initial complaint seriously, a police spokesman in western Osaka said. He said the 38-year-old was arrested on charges of obstructing police work.

The woman had made 7,177 calls during the day or night between September 14 and October 13 this year, sometimes shouting "drop dead" at police, he said.

She first called in 2005 to say she had been hit by a man, but the officer who answered her call "did not take the allegation seriously, because what she said was hard to understand," he said. "She apparently had a grudge against police officials," he added.