World Briefs

Canine lovers were in mourning Thursday at the news that a bug-eyed Chinese crested hairless pooch, who was officially crowned the World's Ugliest Dog, has died at age 17.

The lovable Miss Ellie, whose lopsided tongue always stuck out of the side of her mouth, died on Tuesday in her Tennessee home.

Rescued by owner Dawn Goehring when she was seven years old, Miss Ellie, who drew smiles with the shock of blonde hair above her eyes, had helped raise over $100,000 for the Humane Society of the Tennessee Valley.

Despite being blind in her final years, she won Animal Planet's World's Ugliest Dog award last year. (AFP)

Britons are 'Europe's worst-dressed tourists'

British people are the worst-dressed holidaymakers in Europe followed by Germans, while the Italians and French are the smartest, according to a survey released yesterday.

The findings came despite 36 per cent of Britons - who are famed for fashion blunders like wearing socks with sandals - admitting that they dress more adventurously than usual while on a break.

The survey also looked at how good people from different countries are at switching off from the pressures of work while taking a break. 87 per cent of travellers from France said they checked their work e-mails while on holiday compared to over a quarter of Britons. And while 93 per cent of Britons try to speak the local language when abroad, some 20 per cent of French travellers say they do not make any effort at all. (AFP)

Posh pointers

Employing a cleaner, saying "supper" instead of "dinner" and owning an Aga are among the current indicators that one is posh, according to a study.

A quarter of those questioned consider spending more than £10 on a bottle of wine to be posh, the poll by Opinium Research.

Other markers include telling others what school you went to while in your 30s, doing the weekly shop at Waitrose and drinking Earl Grey tea. (PA)

Licence to theft

A burglary suspect was charged after authorities say they found the licence plate from his car at the crime scene.

A security camera video from a Florida petrol station break-in shows a sedan pulling up to the store and a man smashing the window and stealing cigarettes. Before the car drives away, the video shows the vehicle's licence plate falling off.

Police retrieved the plate and traced it to a car registered to 49-year-old Gary Browder. (PA)

Trash-coated 'hotel' in Rome

A stone's throw from the Vatican, German artist HA Schult has set up a hotel covered by 12 tonnes of trash to illustrate humans' relationship with the immense quantity of garbage they produce.

"We are in the trash time. We produce trash and we will be trash. So this hotel is the mirror of the situation," Mr Schult said yesterday, on the eve of World Environment Day.

About the size of a large single family house, the temporary hotel - open between last Thursday and next Monday - stands in the shade of Rome's Castel Sant'Angelo, a 11th century landmark castle along banks of the Tiber river.

The building is completely covered on all sides with old tins, hats, cameras, socks and soccer balls found on European beaches and selected by Mr Schult. (AFP)

Smelly advert

A roadside billboard in North Carolina showing a fork in a joint of prime beef also emits the smell of black pepper and charcoal.

The ad is to promote a new line of beef available at a grocery chain and the smell will be pumped out six hours a day.

A high-powered fan at the bottom of the billboard spreads the aroma by blowing air over cartridges loaded with fragrance oil. (PA)

Beef, sea bass on G20 menu

Sea bass, beef ribs and traditional Korean dishes were playing their part in shoring up a fragile global recovery yesterday as ministers of world's top economies met over a three-course dinner.

With the sovereign-debt crisis in Europe forcing countries there to trim the fiscal pork, ministers in Korea faced an array of waistline-expanding delicacies, heapings of Korean "bibimbap" rice and succulent beef ribs.

The officials won't drink a formal toast in the name of austerity, but they will have access to some "accompanying wine" and rice wine, a G20 spokeswoman told reporters. (AFP)

Happy returns

A pensioner has finally got his wallet back, 69 years after he lost it.

Robert Bell, who now lives in Utah, last saw it at school in Chicago in 1941.

An electrician found it in a false ceiling in the mid-1960s and, after trying for years to find the owner, located Mr Bell.

He was stunned by its return and is now looking forward to showing the photos of himself in it to his son. (PA)