World Briefs

Cameroonian security forces have smashed up the street stalls, where thousands of people earn a living, to give the capital Yaounde a face-lift for a visit by Pope Benedict next week.

Pope Benedict makes his first trip to Africa as Pontiff, visiting Cameroon before continuing to Angola to mark 500 years of Christian evangelism there.

"My 10 years of investments have been ruined. I don't know now what to do to survive," wailed Mariane Ngoupendji when she found her typing and printing shop reduced to rubble. "Will the Pope's visit replace what I've lost?" she said.

The woman collapsed weeping to the ground as youths pulled pieces of corrugated iron, girders and planks from the ruins, hoping to sell them or use them to build elsewhere.

Many people make their living through informal stalls or boutiques, selling everything from imported electrical goods to local produce in a country where millions of people live in poverty even though it boasts one of Africa's biggest economies. (Reuters)

Mobile phones banned from schools

The Central Asian state of Tajikistan yesterday banned mobile phones from all schools and universities in a bid to boost education.

"This measure has been taken in order to improve the quality of teaching at schools," deputy Dodikhudo Saimutdinov said after a vote in parliament.

Offenders, including those who carry phones without using them, will be fined.

Although Tajikistan is considered Central Asia's poorest nation, 3.2 million out of seven million Tajiks use mobiles.

President Imomali Rakhmon has earlier introduced uniforms at schools and universities and barred students from going to schools in their own cars. (Reuters)

Eurovision rejects Georgia's song

The Eurovision Song Contest has rejected Georgia's entry of a song that pokes fun at Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin because of its political message, organisers said yesterday.

The song titled We Don't Wanna Put In, performed by the group Stephane and 3G with its none-too-subtle play on the Prime Minister's surname, was chosen last month as Georgia's entry in the annual song contest.

A group of experts that oversees the contest decided the song did not comply with a section of the rules declaring that "no lyrics, speeches, gestures of a political or similar nature shall be permitted" during the contest, the statement added.

Georgia has until next Monday to change the lyrics or choose a different song, it said. Georgia chose the song after initially considering boycotting the contest because of its short war with Russia last year. (AFP)

Year-long show on women in art

In a world first, the Pompidou modern art museum in Paris yesterday announced a major year-long show on women in art in the 20th and 21st century featuring works from Europe's biggest collection.

Drawing from its more than 50,000 works, one of the planet's two largest modern and contemporary art collections, the museum is dedicating almost half of its floor space to 500 works by 200 women artists from around the world, as from May 27. "No museum has ever done this before," said Alfred Pacquement, director of the centre's modern art collections.

Gathering pioneering artists such as Frida Kahlo, Sonia Delaunay or Joan Mitchell, the show also includes contemporary players Sophie Calle or Louise Bourgeois as well as photographers Gisele Freund, Diane Arbus or Susan Meiselas, and designer-architects from Eileen Gray to Zaha Hadid.

Currently, women artists represent only 17 per cent of artists in the Pompidou collection. (AFP)

France to raise legal drinking age

French lawmakers have voted to ban alcohol sales to minors as part of a crackdown on teenage binge-drinking, but dropped contested plans to ban wine tastings and alcohol ads on the internet. Deputies in the National Assembly late on Monday approved an amendment to a health ministry Vill raising the legal age limit from 16 to 18 for both alcohol and tobacco sales, bringing France in line with most of Europe.

With underage drinking on the rise across Europe, according to a recent study, the French Bill, which still needs Senate approval, would allow mayors to ban take-away sales of alcohol at night in their towns.

The law will also outlaw open bars, seen as encouraging binge-drinking, as well as alcohol sales in road service stations after 6 p.m.

But the French wine lobby breathed a sign of relief after the text was amended to exclude wine tastings and industry fairs from the open-bar ban. (AFP)

Debate over bullfighting award

A fierce debate has erupted in Spain's bullfighting world after the culture ministry gave an award to a handsome matador who some say is better known for his personal life than his abilities in the ring.

The controversy began two weeks ago when the ministry gave the Fine Arts medal to Francisco Rivera Ordonez, a member of Spain's most illustrious bullfighting family who is heavily involved in the business side of the sport. The ministry praised Mr Ordonez, who has spent the past 15 years in the bullring, for his "aesthetics, poise and depth".

Dissatisfaction over the choice burst into the limelight over the weekend when it emerged that two previous medal winners had returned their prizes in protest. José Tomas, one of Spain's hottest matadors, and Paco Camino, a former idol of the bullring, justified the move in a letter to Culture Minister Cesar Antonio Molina in which they said the award had lost all value, daily newspaper ABC reported. (AFP)