World Briefs

An Irish lawmaker who made an expletive-ridden outburst in Parliament will not face further sanction because of a precedent set by a 1947 row, officials announced yesterday.

Paul Gogarty of the Green party, the junior partner in Prime Minister Brian Cowen's ruling coalition, used the F-word twice in the Dail (lower house of parliament) last December, in a clip which became a YouTube hit.

He apologised immediately at the time for his "unparliamentary language".

Yesterday a sub-committee of the Committee on Procedure and Privileges, which oversees behaviour in the Dail, found Mr Gogarty's language was "contempt of an aggravated nature".

"It considers them to have been ill-judged, unwarranted, to have reflected extremely badly on the member in question, to have given rise to further disorder and to have brought the House into disrepute," it said.

But it found a precedent set by an investigation of the 1947 row that decided to regard the matter as "closed" after those involved apologised, continued "to appear valid and reasonable". (AFP)

Record jackpot

A French couple struck lucky on their 13th wedding anniversary on Monday, picking up a record jackpot of more than €5 million from a slot machine in the Pyrenees mountains, the casino said.

The winners pocketed €5,512,448, a French record, from a one arm bandit in a casino in southwestern Bagneres-de-Bigorre, part of a network of 100 casinos that are hooked up to offer mega-jackpots.

The last French record for a slot machine jackpot was just over €3 million. (AFP)

Raped brother

The son of a well-known right-wing French member of the European Parliament has been ordered to appear in court charged with raping his own brother, judicial sources said yesterday.

Guillaume de Villiers, now 31, is accused of raping his younger brother Laurent, now 25, between January 1995 and December 1996 when both were minors.

Both are sons of Viscount Philippe Le Jolis de Villiers de Saintignon, a 61-year-old aristocratic eurosceptic who leads the small party Movement for France and is the Euro-MP for the Vendee region of western France. (AFP)

Beavers blamed

Beavers who tunnel through vital defences protecting Polish cities are partly to blame for devastating floods that have swept the country killing 15 people, Poland's Interior Minister said yesterday.

"The greatest enemy of the flood defences is an animal called the beaver. They live everywhere along the levees on the Vistula (river) and cause a lot of damage to them," Jerzy Miller told reporters. (AFP)

Blackmailing FBI

Police arrested a 42-year-old Austrian man for trying to blackmail the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) with information about alleged attacks, the counter-terrorism bureau said yesterday.

The suspect had e-mailed the FBI and two major US newspapers on Friday demanding an immediate payment of €300,000 followed by another of one million to be paid into a bank account in the United States, the Styrian security and counter-terrorism bureau said in a statement.

In exchange for the money, the man said he would provide information about four bombs that were bound for the United States as well as a list of 200 potential suspects. (AFP)

Eunuch wedding

A Pakistani court yesterday remanded in custody a portly fertiliser dealer and teenage eunuch for allegedly trying to marry in the Taliban bomb-hit city of Peshawar, police said.

The alleged couple and dozens of guests were arrested when police raided a late-night party after a tip off that 42-year-old Malik Mohammad Iqbal Khan was trying to marry a 19-year-old eunuch, police said.

"We arrested the bridegroom, the would-be bride and 41 others at the wedding party," local police station chief Shahid Khan said. (AFP)

Bus plunge

A tourist bus plunged off a bridge on Turkey's Mediterranean coast in Antalya province yesterday, killing 13 Russian visitors and two Turks, officials said.

"There are 15 dead, including 13 Russians," deputy provincial governor Mehmet Seyman told AFP by telephone, adding that the Turkish victims were the bus driver and the tourists' guide.

"The bus hit the bridge railings, broke the railings... and then plunged into the stream," Mr Seyman told the Anatolia news agency. (AFP)

Missed target

A schoolboy threw a plastic bottle at France's President Nicolas Sarkozy during a visit to discuss violence in French schools yesterday, but missed his target.

A bodyguard came between Mr Sarkozy and the water bottle which was thrown as pupils crowded around the President, some of them seeking to shake his hand, at the Charles Fauqueux high school in Beauvais, north of Paris. (AFP)

Son sues mother

A son sued his mother at the High Court in London yesterday over her alleged failure to protect him from his father's beatings.

The 32-year-old man, who cannot be identified, says that his mother, who is now in her late 60s, assaulted him herself and aided and abetted the daily punishment meted out by her husband by reporting his failings.

His counsel, Justin Levinson, told Mrs Justice Thirlwall in London that she had a duty as a parent to take reasonable steps to protect her son and his four brothers and sisters. (PA)