World Briefs

A Philippine plane with 80 passengers aboard was seconds away from a crash when a man teaching his girlfriend to drive sped across the runway as the aircraft landed, newspapers reported yesterday.

The Cebu Pacific plane briefly touched down at Legazpi airport in the central Philippines on Saturday but took off again as the van being driven by the couple crossed the runway, the Philippine Star newspaper said.

The man is the son of a local aviation official, who has been ordered suspended from duty.

"It could have been a disaster if not for the presence of mind of a veteran pilot," Legazpi mayor Noel Rosal told the newspaper. (Reuters)

Africans asked to check if they are legally alive

South Africans are being urged to confirm whether they are officially alive, as the beleaguered Home Affairs Department attempts to do away with "fraudulent deaths", the government said yesterday.

"We really call upon citizens to confirm your alive status," local government minister Richard Baloyi told a press conference.

A special call centre has been set up for South Africans to check if they have been wrongly declared dead - an increasingly common problem with identity theft by criminals trying to benefit from life insurance, he said.

Mr Baloyi also urged citizens to check if they are legally married, as criminals are also engaging in identity theft to arrange fake marriages for migrants seeking citizenship. "You may find out you are married more than once," he said. (AFP)

Gets 19 years for love scam

A Nigerian undergraduate has been sentenced to 19 years in prison for obtaining $47,000 (€36,242) from an Australian woman by convincing her over the internet that he was 57 years old, white, and madly in love with her.

Lawal Adekunle Nurudeen met his victim on the internet in 2007 and convinced her that he was a British widower called Benson Lawson. He said he was an engineer working in Lagos whose wife and only child had been killed in a car accident.

"The victim, a 56-year-old woman from Australia, told the convict that she wanted a husband and all the men she had met always disappointed her," said the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Nigeria's anti-corruption police.

"The convict, who is married with three children, instantly replied and told the victim she had met her Mr Right... He sent the picture of a white man to foreclose any suspicions."

The woman sent Nurudeen money for medical treatment and travel costs to visit Australia. He spent the funds on two plots of land and a Honda Prelude car. (Reuters)

Porn star strips in bourse protest

An Italian pornographic actress stripped down to her panties at the Milan Stock Exchange yesterday to protest against the financial crisis, police said.

Laura Perego, 22, climbed onto a table inside the bourse entrance clad only in her panties and with the Italian flag painted on her body, a police spokesman said.

"Italy is down to its underpants," the Sicilian-born actress shouted before being taken away by police. She was charged with obscene acts.

"I want to send a message to all those who have so badly managed people's savings," Ms Perego told the Ansa news agency.

She added she had other public exhibitions in mind "always improvised and unexpected", Ansa said. (Reuters)

Potty-mouthed video game grabs profanity record

A video game called House of the Dead: Overkill has been named the most profane ever by Guinness World Records, a spokesman said yesterday.

The well-received game, which is playable on the Nintendo Wii console, features the F word 189 times, equating to three per cent of the all of the game's dialogue.

"It is a dubious honour to receive such an accolade working in an industry where so often the fruits of your labours are derided and dismissed for being puerile or irresponsible," said Jonathan Burroughs, the game's writer.

"But in the case of The House Of The Dead: Overkill, a little puerility was the order of business," added Mr Burroughs of the game, which is published by Sega.

"Parodying the profane excess of grind-house cinema was (game developer) Headstrong Games' objective and I am flattered that this record acknowledges that we not only rose to that challenge, but entirely exceeded it." (AFP)

Leopard lived in family's home

A fully-grown female leopard that lived with a German family for 18 months will be moved to a new home after authorities said the owners held no licence to keep the animal in their residential neighbourhood.

The family in the town of Weyhe, in northern Germany, had built a 1,400-square-metre leopard park without an official permit, local authorities said.

"Keeping a leopard in a residential area is simply not allowed in Germany," said Heinz-Juergen Greszik, spokesman for local authorities.

Germany's Tierschutzbund, an animal rights organisation, said wild animals should not be kept in private households. "Why can't these people have a dog or a cat?" said Thomas Schroeder from the Tierschutzbund. (Reuters)