World Briefs

A coffee-stained piano used by The Beatles at London’s Abbey Road studios has been withdrawn from sale, the auctioneers said yesterday, without giving a reason for a decision.

The battered Challen upright piano, which can be heard on hits such as Paperback Writer and Tomorrow Never Knows, both recorded in Abbey Road in 1966, was valued at more than $100,000 (€120,000).

“This lot has been withdrawn,” Bonhams auctioneers said on its website. A spokesman said she could not comment on why the sale was cancelled. It was due to be sold as part of an auction at the Goodwood vintage festival of music, fashion and art in southeastern England. (AFP)

Bear traps head in container

A black bear cub in Florida affectionately known as “jarhead” can finally enjoy a good meal.

A clear plastic container was removed from the six-month-old cub’s head after being stuck for at least 10 days.

The cub poked its head into the jar when digging through rubbish in a neighbourhood in central Florida.

Biologists said the cub was days away from death because the jar made it impossible to eat or drink.

The team had to tranquilise the mother bear and then grab the cub to remove the jar from the bear’s head. (PA)

Swimming with ducks

Two Germans have set out on an unusual summer holiday, beginning a 500-kilometre swim down a river from central Germany to the North Sea with seven pet ducks.

Starting in the town of Kassel, Pia Marie Witt, 33, Wilfried Arnold, 58, and their companions will swim down the Fulda and Weser rivers, hoping to reach the North Sea port of Bremerhaven by mid-September.

Ms Witt and Mr Arnold aim to swim 10 to 15 kilometres a day – an order too tall for the ducks, who will swim for about 20 minutes a day, following by car or boat when exhaustion kicks in. (PA)

Thousands flock to see asteroid pod

Thousands of people flocked to an exhibition in Japan yesterday to see a capsule from the Hyabusa space probe which was hoped to have brought asteroid dust to Earth.

Some 1,800 people were queuing in Tokyo to see the heat-proof pod, which had travelled in space with the unmanned craft for seven years, even before the exhibition opened in the morning, a Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (Jaxa) spokesman said.

The capsule, which journeyed billions of kilometres, was fired back to Earth in June. (AFP)

French Gypsy protest

Members of France’s Roma, Gypsy and traveller minorities blocked a major highway outside Bordeaux yesterday after hundreds of them were kicked out of an illegal ­campsite.

President Nicolas Sarkozy’s government has launched a major crackdown on the travelling minorities, closing unauthorised camps and expelling foreign-born Gypsies from the country.

Yesterday’s blockade was the first major counter-protest by the groups, and more than 250 cars, trucks and caravans blocked the Bordeaux bypass and a bridge over the River Garonne in the southwest of the country.

Police said northbound traffic towards Paris was backed up for five kilometres and southbound into Bordeaux for two kilometres, causing major disruption on a summer public holiday weekend. (AFP)

No topless bathing

Men do not want their partners sunbathing topless but are happy to see other women baring all on the beach, according to a poll yesterday. As many as 56 per cent of men would not allow their partner to go topless while on holiday, the survey by travel agent www.sunshine.co.uk found.

But 89 per cent of men said they had no problem with other women stripping off.

Of the women surveyed, 68 per cent said they were prepared to go topless on the beach.

Of these, 78 per cent said they would do it to avoid tan lines, while just three per cent admitted to exhibitionism. (PA)

Onassis necklace on auction

A necklace once owned by Jackie Onassis sold for £30,000 yesterday at auction.

The triple strand simulated pearl necklace went under the hammer at Bonhams’ Pioneers of Popular Culture sale at the inaugural Vintage at Goodwood Festival, near Chichester, West Sussex. (PA)