World Briefs

Authorities in Nepal have stopped feeding tigers in the country's only zoo for one day a week to keep them from piling on the pounds.

One of three fat cats at Jawalakhel zoo in the Nepali capital now weighs in at about 220 kilogrammes, having gained 40 kilogrammes on a diet of buffalo meat in just eight months.

The diet for Kancha, which means "the youngest child", and two other Royal Bengal tigers is enforced in consultation with foreign zoos which also have a tight feeding regime for the endangered animals.

"We don't give the tigers anything to eat on Saturdays except water," zoo official Binad Karmacharya said yesterday.

"The practice of feeding tigers for six days a week is good for their health."

An adult of the species can weigh up to a majestic 300 kilogrammes.

There are only about 4,000 tigers left in the wild worldwide, according to World Wildlife Fund (WWF) 2008 estimates. The survival of the wild cat is threatened due to loss of habitat, poaching and illegal trade in tiger parts.

Sacked for dozing off

A local government in southern China has sacked six officials who were photographed dozing during a meeting and whose images were published online, Chinese media said yesterday.

The six, some company managers and some Communist Party chiefs for various government branches, were attending a meeting in Hengyang city in Hunan province marking 30 years of economic reforms, the Beijing News said. "They (the sackings) are intended to strictly enforce discipline and clear up the bad impact this had on society," the newspaper said, citing the decision made by the city government.

While the report did not say who took the pictures and posted them on the internet, the incident has generated heated discussion online, with many saying the dismissals were unfair as it was not the officials' fault the meeting was boring.

Imprisoned for smoking on train

A man was given three days in detention for breaking a non-smoking rule on a new high-speed rail line, Chinese state media said, an unusually severe punishment in a country where smoking bans are routinely ignored.

He was caught smoking in the toilet just after the train had left Tianjin for Beijing, triggering an alarm and causing the train to stop, the official Xinhua news agency said on its website (www.xinhuanet.com).

The high-tech line connects the capital with neighbouring Tianjin. It opened in time for this year's Beijing Olympics and features carriages more luxurious than usual in China, including swivel chairs and spacious, plush interiors.

No-smoking signs and rules are generally given short shrift in China and about half of all Chinese men smoke.

Sex shop attacked by upset customer

A man shot and wounded a saleswoman in a Russian sex shop on Christmas Eve after the impotence tablets he bought failed to have the desired effect, Russian media quoted police as saying.

The man walked into the "Intim" shop in a Moscow suburb and demanded a refund for the tablets he had bought there a day earlier, Interfax news agency quoted law enforcement sources as saying.

He shot the shop assistant with a pistol when she refused to give him back his money.

Wolf captured near Great Wall

A wolf has been captured by forestry workers near a part of China's Great Wall close to Beijing which is popular with tourists, state media said on Christmas Day.

The wolf is being kept at a nature park and will be released in uninhabited mountains far from the Wall, Xinhua news agency said.

It was captured close to the Badaling section, it said, a restored part of the Wall many tour groups visit.

While wolves are believed to have vanished from the Beijing area in the 1950s, about 20 are still thought to live in the mountains to the north of the city, Xinhua said.

Giant ice Santa

China's freezing northern city of Harbin is building what organisers say is the world's largest Santa Claus ice sculpture.

The giant Father Christmas, 160 metres long and 24 metres high, centres on an enormous face of Father Christmas, complete with flowing beard and hat. Its huge size and unseasonably warm temperatures have made the job especially challenging, said Tang Guangjun, one of the sculptors.