World Briefs

Russians falling on hard times could soon be seeking their fortunes as gold prospectors in a Soviet-era prison region if legislative changes are approved, newspapers speculated yesterday.

Russian newspapers were intrigued by a proposal put to President Dmitry Medvedev to permit not only companies but also private individuals to prospect for gold in the remote northeastern Magadan region. The proposal came from the head of the regional assembly there, Alexander Alexandrov.

Legalising individual gold prospecting "wouldn't so much raise the volume of gold extracted as reduce social tensions in the Kolyma region," Mr Alexandrov was quoted by Novye Izvestia newspaper as saying. "This is a question of employment." (AFP)

Obama banters with Lula

Foreign leaders hoping to have good chemistry with US President Barack Obama may want to take a lesson from Brazil's Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. The Brazilian President, a charismatic former union leader, hit it off with the former Chicago community organiser at a White House meeting last Saturday with banter about verbosity and, of all things, getting lost in the Amazon.

In his opening remarks to reporters in the Oval Office, Mr Lula said he expressed sympathy to Mr Obama for the many crises the United States faced. Eliciting laughter from journalists, he said he told Mr Obama what he told Brazilians at rallies back home:

"I'm praying more for him than I pray for myself. Because with just 40 days in office - to suffer and to face such a terrible crisis the US is facing today, I don't want to be in his position."

President Obama, who has been in office 54 days, offered a quick response, "You sound like you've been talking to my wife." (Reuters)

Tobacco price rise ahead of polls

Malawian President Bingu wa Mutharika yesterday raised the price of tobacco, the country's chief export crop, in a boon to the nation's farmers two months ahead of national elections.

"Tobacco is a strategic crop. It is bringing in money that runs this country... so the minimum price for a kilo of burley tobacco will be €2.15," President Mutharika said on state radio as tobacco auctions opened in the administrative capital Lilongwe.

The crop, popularly known in Malawi as "green gold", fetches up to 70 per cent of the poor country's foreign exchange. Last year the minimum price was around $2 a kilo.

In the past, farmers have rioted and shut down auction floors over prices, which at one time tumbled to a low of 60 cents per kilogramme. The tobacco industry employs about 500,000 people. (AFP)

Funeral barter laid to rest

A New York funeral director hoping to barter a free funeral for construction work on his patio was forced to scrap the idea due to the media frenzy that followed.

Peter Dohanich, 51, had posted an ad for the exchange on the online classified site Craigslist last week. Intense media interest in the story prompted his landlord, who rents space to Mr Dohanich, to evict him, he said.

The landlord is also in the funeral business and told Mr Dohanich they were competitors, Mr Dohanich said. (AFP)

Swiss find safe haven in taxes

Most people are averse to paying their taxes during the best of times, but in the grip of a global recession some citizens in Switzerland are overpaying their dues - having found an unusual safe haven for their cash.

The practice came to light after Peter Hegglin, finance director of the Zug canton near Zurich, discovered last autumn that annual accounts would end up 50 million Swiss francs (€32 million) better off than budgeted, the weekly Sonntag.CH said.

Mr Hegglin concluded that taxpayers were using the canton's treasury as a bank because it pays two per cent interest on overpayments, much more than the 0.1-0.5 per cent currently offered by Swiss banks.

"Abusing the tax administration, and ultimately the canton, as a safe and interest-paying bank must be prevented," the paper quoted Mr Hegglin as saying.

In some cases the canton, famous for its low taxes, has forced taxpayers to withdraw advance payments or rejected them before they were paid in. (Reuters)

For sale - an English village

An entire English village, complete with 22 houses and cottages, two blacksmiths and a cricket pitch, goes on sale this week.

The charitable trust which owns Linkenholt in Hampshire, southern England, has decided to sell up and use the capital it raises elsewhere.

The asking price when Linkenholt goes on the open market tomorrow is £22-25 million pounds (€24-27 million), according to Jackson-Stops & Staff estate agents who are handling the sale.

The archetypal English village is nestled in rolling countryside and boasts a manor house, old rectory and clock tower and is part of a 2,000-acre estate. One of the few things a buyer would not own is St Peters church, which originally dates back to the 12th century but was significantly rebuilt in 1871.

Locals, who rent their properties, are expected to stay on after the sale, and most hope that a change in ownership does not mean a change in lifestyle. "It would be nice if somebody bought the estate and lived here and was Lord of the Manor to be quite honest, that's the general consensus of everyone in the village," said Colin Boast, one of the village's two blacksmiths. (Reuters)