World Briefs

He had been hopping around the French countryside for the past 10 days, but wildlife authorities finally caught up with Will the kangaroo in a village in the southwest.

Police had been receiving phone calls over past weeks from local residents who had spotted the 1.2-metre marsupial bouncing around a children's park or in corn fields.

Wildlife authorities cornered Will in the village of Juillac-le-Coq late Wednesday and used a tranquiliser dart gun to put him to sleep and capture him, said his owner.

It remains unclear how Will managed to escape his pen in the first place. His owner, who lives in the nearby village of Gente, was on holidays when he went off on his adventure. (AFP)

Man hides gun in rolls of fat

An obese prisoner in Harris County, Texas has been charged with illegal possession of a firearm after he was discovered to be hiding a 9 mm pistol in between his rolls of fat.

George Vera, who weighs around 225 kilograms was originally arrested last week for selling counterfeit CDs.

A police spokesman said Mr Vera was searched three times over the course of his arrest and booking at the jail but managed to conceal the handgun with his rolls of fat until it was discovered in the shower.

Mr Vera has been charged with possession of an illegal weapon in a correctional facility, which carries a penalty of two to 10 years in prison, but is currently free on bail of $10,000. (AFP)

Saudi closes broadcaster after confession

Saudi Arabia has closed the Jeddah office of a Lebanon-based TV network after it aired an interview with a Saudi man speaking about his sexual escapades, a government spokesman said yesterday.

Mazen Abdul-Jawad, 32, was arrested last month in the Red Sea city of Jeddah after shocking Saudi Arabia, one of the most conservative countries in the world, by recounting details of his sexual exploits on Lebanese channel LBC.

The divorced father of four spoke on camera about how couples can spice up their sex lives before launching into techniques and tricks for attracting women on the streets of Jeddah.

A spokesman for the ministry of culture and information in Riyadh said a committee had decided to close the Jeddah office of LBC because of the interview.

Like many Arab countries, Saudi Arabia prohibits sexually explicit content on TV and in newspapers, magazines and books. (Reuters)

Coaching turned wife into tyrant

An man is seeking a divorce on the grounds that life coaching sessions turned his wife into a tyrant.

"My wife turned me into a slave," the man said in a divorce request filed with a rabbinical court, the Maariv daily reported last Friday.

"She became even more authoritarian after undergoing life coaching sessions," he said.

Life coaching, which aims to help individuals determine and achieve personal goals, is increasingly popular. (AFP)

Cuba running short of toilet paper

Cuba, in the grip of a serious economic crisis, is running short of toilet paper and may not get sufficient supplies until the end of the year, officials with state-run companies have said.

Officials said they were lowering the prices of 24 basic goods to help Cubans get through the difficulties provoked in part by the global financial crisis and three destructive hurricanes that struck the island last year.

Cuba's financial reserves have been depleted by increased spending for imports and reduced export income, which has forced the communist-led government to take extraordinary measures to keep the economy afloat.

"The corporation has taken all the steps so that at the end of the year there will be an important importation of toilet paper," an official with state conglomerate Cimex said.

Cuba both imports toilet paper and produces its own, but does not currently have enough raw materials to make it, he said.

One of the measures taken to address the cash crunch is a 20 per cent cut in imports. Cuba imports about 60 per cent of its food. (Reuters)