Spanish police have arrested a man whom they suspect hired a contract killer to murder his boss in a desperate bid to avoid being laid off, newspaper El Pais reported yesterday.
The head of audiovisual services at the Barcelona International Convention Centre contracted a Colombian man who shot and killed the director of the convention centre on February 9, according to police. The director had planned to lay off the arrested man as part of a restructuring project, police said.
In fear of losing his job, the head of services, through his sister, contracted a team of six Colombians who planned and carried out the killing, El Pais reported.
Police have also detained the sister and six Colombians. (Reuters)
In dock for mosquito breeding
A Sri Lankan court threatened a mosquito repellent factory manager with six months in jail for failing to destroy mosquito breeding areas on company premises to stop the spread of dengue fever, an official said yesterday.
The Indian Ocean island nation is battling an outbreak of the mosquito-borne viral infection that has killed more than 150 people this year and infected 13,479 people, according to Health Ministry figures.
"The court fined the superintendent of a mosquito coil company for failing to destroy mosquito breeding places after we found larvae in several empty cans inside the premises," said Rohana De Silva, Attagalla public health inspector.
The court on Monday fined the superintendent 1,500 rupees (€9) and imposed a suspended sentence of six months hard labour, which can be reinstated if the company does not keep its premises free of breeding grounds, Ms De Silva said. (Reuters)
China's internet porn filter
What do Johnny Depp, Garfield, and roast pork have in common? In China, the answer is that a new government-mandated internet filter rates some pictures of all four of them as bad for your moral health.
Beijing has ordered all personal computers sold in China from July 1 to be preinstalled with the Green Dam software, which it says is designed to block pornographic and violent images, and which critics fear will be used to extend censorship.
But a trial of the programme, which is available online for free download www.skycn.com/soft/46657.html), suggested its filters may be of limited use to worried parents.
When the software is installed, and an image scanner activated, it blocks even harmless images of a film poster for cartoon cat Garfield, dishes of flesh-colour cooked pork and on one search engine a close-up of film star Johnny Depp's face.
With the image filter off, even though searches with words like "nude" are blocked, a hunt for adult websites throws up links to soft and hardcore pornography sites including one with a video of full penetrative sex playing on its front page. (Reuters)
Knobbly carrots back in EU shops
Bendy cucumbers, knobbly carrots and other strangely shaped fruit and vegetables, long the source of jibes over EU micro-regulation, will be allowed back onto European supermarket shelves from today.
EU Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel admitted yesterday that the rules on the curvature and shape of produce were long-standing examples of "unnecessary red tape" emanating from Brussels.
"July 1 marks the return to our shelves of the curved cucumber and the knobbly carrot," she said. "We don't need to regulate this sort of thing at EU level. It is far better to leave it to market operators," the commissioner added.
The changes also mean that consumers will be able to choose from the widest range of products possible. "It makes no sense to throw perfectly good products away, just because they are the 'wrong' size and shape," she said. (AFP)
20 pence coins worth £50
An error by the Royal Mint in Britain has seen the issue of tens of thousands of "dateless" 20 pence coins - driving their value up to £50 (€60) each, a collector said yesterday.
There are believed to be between 50,000 and 200,000 of the coins, worth €0.24, in circulation, all of them missing the stamped 2009 date which was supposed to appear on the back of the coin.
It was the first time an undated coin has entered circulation in more than 300 years - the last such error occurred in 1672 under the reign of Charles II.
Describing the mistake as "incredibly rare", the Royal Mint - the institution responsible for making Britain's notes and coins - said the error occurred last year during a redesign of every denomination of coin.
The old 20 pence coin had the date on the front of the coin, but the updated version was supposed to shift the date to the other side.
However, the coins were minted using an old version of the side of the coin featuring Queen Elizabeth II's head which does not carry the year. (AFP)