World Briefs

A lovesick Polish scientist on a remote island has aided understanding of Antarctica's two flowering plants with a tribute to his beloved written in penguin dung fertiliser, Chilean researchers said.

The two plants were found flourishing side by side on a two-metre-long "M" - the first letter of the woman's name, Magda - laid out by the researcher several years ago on King George Island at the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula.

In surrounding areas, the Antarctic pearlwort and the Antarctic hair grass did not grow together - a sign that the penguin dung acted as a fertiliser to create the rare floral love message.

"Many years ago a man wrote an 'M' for 'Magda' with penguin dung on the ground," the Chilean Antarctic Institute said in a report from Britain's Rothera research station on the Antarctic Peninsula. "Today the Antarctic hair grass and the Antarctic pearlwort grow there together, perpetuating this unusual love story," it said of the findings by botanist Luisa Bascunan of Chile's University of Concepcion.

Charged with crashing plane

US agents have filed criminal charges against a pilot who parachuted out of his airplane before it crashed in an apparent attempt to escape his legal woes by faking his death.

Pilot Marcus Schrenker, who is recovering in a north Florida hospital after slashing his wrists, was charged with making a false distress call and wilfully crashing his plane.

The charges were filed in US District Court in Pensacola, Florida, and carry a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, a $5,000 fine, plus restitution for the $36,000 rescue effort.

Mr Schrenker, a 38-year-old money manager from Indiana, was already wanted there on financial fraud charges alleging he misled consumers who invested in his wealth management companies and misappropriated hundreds of thousands of dollars of their money.

No alcohol sales to aborigines

Aborigines in Western Australia state will be banned from buying certain alcoholic beverages, including wine casks and many beers, in a bid to tackle growing lawlessness, alcohol and sexual abuse in indigenous towns.

Covering the rugged northern Kimberley region, including the tourist haven of Broome, the ban will affect takeaway beer in large bottles known as King Browns, named after a deadly snake, as well as two-litre wine casks and boxes of full-strength beer.

Bans would apply "north of the 20th parallel" and were necessary to curb alcohol-related problems plaguing the region, state liquor licensing director Barry Sargeant said.

"I believe that any negative impacts and inconveniences that may be experienced do not outweigh the possible social and health benefits these restrictions may bring to the broader community."

Endangered sheep possibly shot

A hunting party of senior Russian officials may have illegally shot endangered mountain sheep from a helicopter before it crashed, environmental group WWF has said.

WWF said it sent a letter to prosecutors asking them to investigate the group - which included President Dmitry Medvedev's envoy to the Russian Parliament who was killed along with six others - for hunting the endangered Argali sheep.

"Photos from the accident site, which happened in the Altai region on January 9, give the initial impression that passengers in the crashed helicopter were hunting for Argali mountain sheep," WWF said in a statement.

The photographs from the regional press agency's website www.altapress.ru/story/38389/ showed the wreckage and the carcasses of two Argali sheep with bullet holes through their heads lying next to a rifle case.

Warning: slippery pavements

One man died and hundreds were injured in Serbia's capital over the past two days after slipping on icy pavements.

The trauma ward of Belgrade's Clinical Centre has treated more than 850 people in the past 48 hours, mostly for fractures, and one elderly man died on Thursday from a head injury, spokesman Drago Jovanovic said.

"We haven't had this situation in more than a decade," he said, adding that warmer weather yesterday had melted most of the ice.

Hospitals across Serbia treated hundreds of others for ice-related injuries, Serbian media reported.

Belgrade's Mayor Dragan Djilas has urged businesses to change their opening time from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. because most accidents happened early in the morning after overnight frost froze rainy pavements.