For Andrei Molodkin oil is at the root of many of Russia's ills. It is no coincidence that the other material the artist likes to work with is blood.
Mr Molodkin, who will represent Russia at this year's Venice Biennale, believes oil is behind many of the world's conflicts, from the 2003 invasion of Iraq to Moscow's Chechen intervention.
In Venice his featured work will involve shining light through two small, hollow perspex casts of the Winged Victory of Samothrace statue, one containing oil from Chechnya and the other blood from Russian soldiers who served there.
Meanwhile in London the artist is staging an exhibition, Liquid Modernity (Grid and Greed). The main piece is a pair of cages, one made up of hollow, transparent bars filled with oil and the second made of light tubes fuelled by gas produced from the oil. Both are based on the metal cage which held fallen Russian oil oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky in a courtroom during his trial for fraud and tax evasion after which he was jailed.
Mr Molodkin believes post-Communist Russia is an "oil democracy" as opposed to a true democracy. (Reuters)
PM survives assassination attempt
Lesotho Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili has survived an assassination attempt by attackers who planned to seize power, the government said yesterday.
Communications Minister Mothetjoa Metsing said gunmen opened fire on the Prime Minister's house in an attack overnight in the capital of the mountain kingdom of around two million, which is surrounded by South Africa.
"The incident was politically motivated. There are people who want to take over the government before the 2012 general election," said Mr Metsing.
One of the suspects in the shooting was killed during arrests, said the minister. South African President Kgalema Motlanthe, who is also the chair of regional grouping SADC, described the attack as a heinous act. (Reuters)
Rabbits in the pot, ponies a 'No, no'
As people face the recession, sales of rabbit, traditionally seen as a cheap meat, jumped in Britain by 185 per cent this Easter season compared with the previous year, Waitrose supermarket chain reported.
It said the rise in rabbit sales followed "a variety of celebrity chefs championing the meat."
Rabbit was a cheap and plentiful meat staple in Britain during World War Two.
Meanwhile, people in Ireland are cutting back on luxuries acquired during the go-go years of the "Celtic Tiger" economy. Top of the list are pet ponies and horses. Stables at the Dublin Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals are at bursting point. "We get offered horses every day from people who don't want to look after them anymore and turn away six or seven a week," said Jimmy Cahill, general manager at the society. (Reuters)
How's that for recycling?
An Australian entrepreneur has brought a whole new meaning to the phrase "waste paper" with an ingenious green scheme to make luxury stationery from wombat excrement.
Darren Simpson has big plans for the square-shaped natural deposits of a wombat named Nugget. With the help of Nugget's keeper, Mr Simpson harvests the animal's droppings and then boils them down to the fibres to make handmade paper.
The wombat poo paper, which is made by combining the sterilised waste with cotton fibres, follows the success of Mr Simpson's "roo poo" paper, made from kangaroo excrement.
Mr Simpson said he would soon begin work on a wombat poo line of photo albums, journals and writing paper.
"The only problem we ever had was that no one ever wanted to lick the envelope," he said. (AFP)
Jackie Chan upsets 'chaotic Taiwan'
Jackie Chan, an idol throughout the Chinese-speaking world, has upset many in Taiwan over his swipe at the island's politics, with the 2009 Summer Deaflympics breaking off contact with the Hong Kong movie star.
The kung fu hero said at a forum in Communist Party-ruled China, which claims self-ruled Taiwan as its own, that Taiwan was "very chaotic" because of its freedom and suggested that ethnic Chinese people needed to be controlled.
He also angered people in his home-town of Hong Kong where students, lawmakers and web surfers expressed outrage yesterday at Mr Chan's view that too much freedom could lead to chaos like in Taiwan.
His entertainment company's spokesman, Edward Tang, said Mr Chan's comments had been taken out of context and that Mr Chan thought only that some Chinese people should be controlled. "His meaning has been twisted," Mr Tang said. (Reuters)