World Briefs

US investigators probed yesterday how two aspiring reality TV stars beat several layers of White House security to gatecrash President Barack Obama's first state dinner.

Tareq and Michaele Salahi boasted on their joint Facebook page about how they were "honoured to be at the White House for the state dinner in honour of India with President Obama and our First Lady!"

Sporting a black dinner jacket and a flowing red and gold sari, the couple posted photos posing with Vice President Joe Biden, White House chief of staff Rahm Eman-uel and even three uniformed marines.

A checkpoint "did not follow proper procedures" to ensure they were on the guest list and an internal watchdog of the Secret Service was looking into the incident, Special Agent Edwin Donovan said, adding that the couple, both in their 40s, "went through magnetometers and other levels of security, as did all guests attending the dinner." (AFP)

Slept by dead wife for five years

A Vietnamese man dug up his wife's corpse and slept beside it for five years because he wanted to hug her in bed.

The 55-year-old man from a small town in Quang Nam opened up his wife's grave in 2004, moulded clay around the remains to give the figure of a woman, put clothes on her and then placed her in his bed, Vietnamnet.vn said.

The man, Le Van, told the website that after his wife died in 2003 he slept on top of her grave, but about 20 months later he worried about rain, wind and cold, so he decided to dig a tunnel into the grave "to sleep with her".

His children found out and prevented him from going to the grave. So one night in November 2004 he dug up his wife's remains and took them home.

The website carried a photo of Mr Van with the figure of his wife, which is still in his home. (Reuters)

Marriage for sex not a crime

South Korea's Constitutional Court struck down yesterday a half-century-old criminal code provision that made it illegal to promise to marry a woman in return for sex.

The court said the code violated women's constitutional right to sexual freedom and the state must refrain from interfering in such personal matters.

The plaintiffs, two men who brought the appeal against criminal convictions, argued that premarital sex should be a personal and moral issue and not subject to prosecution.

The criminal code provides for up to two years in jail or $4,300 in fines for "anyone who engages in illicit intercourse with womenfolk who does not otherwise habitually engage in lewd conduct with the pretence of marrying her." (Reuters)

Pig sparks gas scare

A flatulent pig sparked a gas emergency in Australia when a farmer mistook its odours for a leaking pipe.

Fifteen firefighters and two trucks were called to a property at Axedale in Victoria after reports of a gas leak.

"When we got there... there was this huge sow, about a 120-odd kilo sow, and it was very obvious where the gas was coming from," said fire captain Peter Harkins.

"We could not only smell it, but we heard it and it was quite funny."

Mr Harkins said the pig's owner was "a little bit embarrassed to say the least." (AFP)

India's 23,000 non-existent workers

New Delhi authorities have been paying salaries to 23,000 non-existent employees at a cost of more than $40-million annually, a statement from the mayor's office said yesterday.

The discrepancy was discovered after Kanwar Sain, mayor of the capital, introduced a biometric system of recording attendance in August. It revealed 104,241 genuine employees on a payroll of 127,094 people.

"The Municipal Corporation of Delhi will go into the full depth of the matter to ascertain the facts," Mr Sain said in the statement. "Strict disciplinary action will be taken." (AFP)

In praise of fakes

A council has come under fire after erecting a £14,000 fake Christmas tree in a seaside town because a traditional fir tree would be a danger to the public. Shoppers in Poole, Dorset, UK said the artificial tree looks more like a huge traffic cone or something from outer space.

It does not have branches or decorations and its thousands of lights look festive only at night, residents have claimed. But Borough of Poole bosses said it is safer, sturdier and cheaper in the long run than a Norway fir tree which could topple over in strong winds. (PA)