World Briefs

The world’s biggest book fair in Frankfurt, Germany is used to seeing some big book launches, but none came larger than a two-by-three-metre Atlas unveiled yesterday.

Yours for a cool $100,000, Australian publisher Gordon Cheers said that the last book even close in size to his 128-page volume was the Klencke Atlas, produced in 1660 as a gift for Charles II of England.

“But that was about one foot smaller than this,” Mr Cheers proudly said. Just to turn a page takes all his strength and the book took people three hours to get into position for visitors to the book fair.

The book took around a month to produce and Cheers is limiting the print run of his monster Atlas to 31. He has already sold two volumes to museums in the United Arab Emirates. (AFP)

Men survive after whale sinks boat

Three men survived four hours floating in rough seas off the north west Australia coast after their boat collided with a whale and sank.

Western Australia police said the men were on a 46-foot wooden boat off Western Australia state when their boat struck something hard.

Senior Sergeant Greg Trew said the men suspected it was a whale and abandoned ship.

They set off an emergency beacon and an oil rig crew picked them up about four hours later. Sgt Trew said the men are in good condition, despite the rough seas – the waves were as high as 13 feet. (PA)

Chores at bedtime

More than half of British women do not finish their domestic chores until 10.30 p.m., a new survey found.

Researchers found that 53 per cent of women do not finish coo­king, cleaning and washing clothes until late in the evening. The survey found that women in Newcastle spend an average of 3.2 hours completing household tasks every day while those in London spend just 1.3 hours on domestic duties.

A spokesman said: “While the men of the house find it easy to relax once the evening family meal is out of the way, and the children can choose to watch TV or go out to play with their friends once they have completed their homework, the average woman of the house has another two or three hours of domestic duties to perform – such as the washing, vacuuming and general tidying up”. (PA)

Young undertaker

A 17-year-old boy is thought to be the youngest person in the country to run his own funeral director’s firm.

George Simnett has been cleaning and preparing bodies full-time for the past two months – and last month set up his own business, GE Simnett and Family Funeral Directors in Loughborough, Leicestershire. (PA)

Spud swap

A couple handed over £650 for a laptop computer only to discover they had been given a bag of potatoes and cardboard instead, police said.

The incident happened in Huntin­gdon High Street, Cambridgeshire, when the victims said they were approached by a man who offered to sell them the computer.

Cambridgeshire Police appealed for information about the suspected fraudster, who was described as aged about 30, white with reddish brown hair and stubble. (PA)

Dear deer

A deer that crashed through a window and ran around a house in Tennessee caused thousands of pounds in damages and a mess that included blood stains from the homeowner shooting it dead.

David Ellis said he saw the deer slide into a drum set and continue a rampage that included ramming its antlers through walls and scattering furnishings.

He grabbed his gun and started firing. No one was hurt but police arrived to find the deer dying. (PA)

No flight for blind traveller

A blind American traveller said he was stopped from getting on a flight in Dubai yesterday because of his disability.

Zuhair Mahmoud, of Virginia, said he ran into problems when he went to check in for a flight on FlyDubai to Amman, Jordan.

“They looked at me and said: ‘Well, we can’t take you ... You’re travelling alone,”‘ he said.

The 37-year-old information technology specialist protested but he was told that there was nothing they could do because it was airline policy not to allow a blind traveller onboard unaccompanied.

Later the chief executive of FlyDubai apologised for the incident and FlyDubai also promised to rebook Mr Mahmoud on another flight and offered him a voucher for a free flight to make up for the mishap. (PA)