World Briefs

While many of Southern California's luxury hotels are battling a severe slump in business by offering extra services and more amenities, the Rancho Bernardo Inn is luring guests with the exact opposite - no frills and barely any basics.

Called the "Survivor Package," the hotel's deeply discounted promotion lets patrons trim its standard $219-per-night rate on a sliding scale of deprivation, lowering charges with each amenity stripped from the room.

The most basic version: a room for $19 with no bed, toilet paper, towels, air-conditioning or "honor bar," and only a single light bulb in the bathroom for safety. The next level up adds in a bed - sans sheets - for $39 a night. For a bed plus toiletries and toilet paper, the rate is $59.

Maureen Carew, assistant general manager of the four-star inn, called the promotion "clever marketing in a downtime". (Reuters)

Roar of disapproval

An Indian state minister sparked a row after entering a cage of tiger clubs and patting one of animals, flouting rules that allow only trained conservationists to handle endangered species.

Balasaheb Thorat, an agricultural minister in the state of Maharastra, was filmed stroking a tiger in Nagpur city zoo as his armed security guards looked on.

"What the minister did was very dangerous," said Kishore Rithe, a leading conservationist and secretary of the Satpuda Foundation, a wildlife charity, "The tiger could have mauled him, forcing the security personnel to retaliate."

Mr Thorat defended himself after footage was shown on TV, saying "I wanted to see how the staff are taking care of the cubs, and I saw they are doing a good job." (AFP)

Salmon return to Paris river

Salmon are returning to the Seine after an absence of almost a century as water in the river that runs through Paris has become cleaner in recent years, French scientists said.

Once numerous in the river, Atlantic salmon disappeared from the Seine in the early 20th century, partly due to pollution from Paris sewers.

But scientists celebrated an improvement in water quality in the Seine that has tempted the protected species back to Paris.

"There has been a turning point. The improvement in water quality has meant that salmon have returned to the Seine," Charles Perrier of the National Institute for Agronomic Research told Reuters. In contrast with the Thames in Britain and the Rhine in Germany, salmon have returned to the Seine naturally, without efforts to reintroduce them into river-waters. (Reuters)

UFO sightings spike with blockbusters

Lemon-headed aliens and mysterious lights were among details of some 800 UFO sightings released by British authorities yesterday.

But an intriguing finding to emerge from the 1981-1996 archives was a surge in reports at the time of UFO-related blockbusters. Among the most striking accounts released by the Ministry of Defence is that of two boys who reported being spoken to by an alien with a lemon-shaped head in a field on May 4, 1995.

"In another account, a former armed forces chief urged authorities to take more seriously a report by US Air Force staff near an airbase in eastern England where the individuals "reported seeing a strange glowing object in the forest," in December 1980.

Still, one of the spookiest incidents occurred on July 15, 1996, when a UFO was spotted hovering over a cemetery in Widnes, England, before firing burning laser beams into the ground.

The image on top, taken in June 1974, shows a series of strange lights racing over the skies of Barcelona in Spain. (AFP)

DJ beaten for shaking up Bedouin wedding

A DJ hired to spin tunes at a Bedouin wedding in Israel was beaten up for playing Western music which some guests felt encouraged lewdness in the women, the Maariv daily reported on yesterday.

The DJ initially put on Arabic tunes for the guests attending the event in Aroer village in Israel's Negev desert region.

At one point, he decided to stir things up and put on a song by the British electronic music duo Pet Shop Boys, causing some women to "dance exuberantly to the foreign music" and angering some of the men present.

Several angry young men gave the DJ a "severe beating" after he refused to go back to playing Arabic music. (AFP)

Leaves contact details before robbery

A man left his name and contact details with a shop before robbing it and fleeing.

The man - a regular customer of the music shop in Christchurch - grabbed handfuls of banknotes from the till with four surveillance cameras trained on him.

Just minutes before the robbery, the man had approached the assistant, saying he wanted a copy of Pink Floyd's album The Wall held for him. He wrote his name and contact details down for the assistant. (AFP)