World Briefs

Star French couturier Pierre Cardin, aged 86, is to be released from a hospital in this Mediterranean city after a 48-hour stay caused by high blood pressure, a source close to the designer said yesterday.

Mr Cardin, who fell and broke a shoulder-blade last week, was flown by helicopter to Marseille on Tuesday from the southern village of Lacoste, where each year he organises a music and theatre festival in a castle he is restoring and which was once owned by the Marquis de Sade.

"He has had a thorough check-up and is being kept for observation until he leaves tomorrow," the source who declined to be named said.

Emergency services said he had suffered a malaise but the source said "his blood pressure rose ... he was totally lucid."

Mr Cardin last week was also briefly hospitalised for a fracture of his shoulder-blade after falling on stairs. (AFP)

Ferguson's relatives hurt in car crash

Two of Alex Ferguson's grandchildren and their mother were hurt in a head-on car crash just hours before his Manchester United side beat Arsenal 3-1 in a Champions League semi-final on Tuesday, their father said.

Darren Ferguson said yesterday that his son Charlie, 10, was in a hospital intensive care unit after undergoing a successful operation. He added that his daughter Grace, six, was fine while their mother Nadine, 30, was still in hospital recovering from her injuries.

Darren Ferguson, who is manager of League One (third division) side Peterborough United, is estranged from his wife.

Cheshire Police said firefighters had to cut the children's mother from the wreckage of her Vauxhall Corsa after it collided with a Ford Fiesta at 8.25 a.m. (0725 GMT) on Tuesday in Macclesfield, northern England. She was flown by helicopter to hospital while her children were taken to hospital by road ambulance. (Reuters)

Search for lost tourist uncovers corpses

A rescue team which failed to find a missing visitor at a tourist hotspot in northern China got a nasty surprise when it stumbled upon seven corpses instead. The team had been scouring the peaks around Taishan Mountain in Shandong province for the Beijing tourist who vanished on April 28, the Qilu Evening Post said.

"We accidently found seven corpses during our search over the past few days," the newspaper quoted one of the rescuers as saying.

The report did not say, however, how the seven may have died nor who they were. The tourist is still missing.

The mountain is one of China's "Five Sacred Peaks" revered by Daoists and is a magnet for Chinese visitors. (Reuters)

Afghanistan's only pig locked up

Afghanistan's only known pig has been taken off display at Kabul Zoo and locked away to avoid panic among visitors who may be worried about swine flu.

"We put the pig temporarily in his winter house under quarantine because of swine influenza," director Aziz Gul Saqib said, adding, "Most people don't have much knowledge about swine influenza and seeing a pig, they panic that they will be infected.

There have been no confirmed cases of swine influenza in Afghanistan and the country does not have any direct flights with nations affected.

It is illegal for Afghans to eat pork in the strictly Islamic country and there are no pig farms or any of the animals in the wild. (AFP)

Homeless leaves $100,000 in bank

A homeless South Korean unable to withdraw his life savings because he could not remember his real name has died in poverty.

The man, believed to be aged 56, died last month, leaving 128 million won (over $100,000) in a bank account that was opened under the alias of Na Hae-Dong. The account was frozen when a law took effect to ban accounts held under false names. Deposits were still allowed but the account holder had to register a real name to withdraw money, something "Na" could not do. "He didn't know what his real name was or where he was born. We tried but failed to identify him," a senior official of Yongbong district in Gwangju, said.

The man collected scrap iron and other junk and slept on his cart under plastic sheets before moving in 2007 into a makeshift shelter made from a shipping container. Though he could not withdraw from the account, he kept putting in savings. (AFP)