World Briefs

Watching stick-thin female frames on TV can have an impact on women’s health, according to a new scientific paper.

Dr Aric Sigman claims that seeing women on screen who are underweight but perceived as “normal” can be harmful to girls and women. He said a biological mechanism which makes females become unhappy when they look at images of an abundance of underweight women has been identified.

The relationship between media and body image was previously treated as a psychological or cultural debate but now it must be treated as a medical one, said Dr Sigman. (PA)

Ten die in Indian temple stampede

At least 10 people died in a stampede at a temple in the eastern Indian state of Bihar where tens of thousands of devotees had gathered for an annual Hindu festival, police said yesterday.

Another 15 people were injured in the stampede, which occurred late Saturday outside a temple in Banka district, some 200 kilometres from Patna, the state capital, senior police officer P.K. Thakur said.

The victims had gathered to witness the traditional sacrifice of goats, Thakur said, adding 40,000 devotees had thronged the temple at the time of the stampede. Four women were among those killed.

“The stampede is thought to have been caused by rumours that a portion of the temple had collapsed or that a snake had entered the packed complex,” a state official said. (AFP)

Marries two brides at same time

A 23-year-old Pakistani man has married two women at the same time – a novel solution to his dilemma of deciding whether to marry the woman he loves or go ahead with the marriage his family arranged.

Pakistani law allows polygamy based on the concept that Islam, allows up to four wives. But men who take multiple wives usually do so years apart.

Azhar Haidri initially refused to marry 28-year-old Humaira Qasim – the woman to whom he has been engaged since childhood – because he wanted to marry the woman with whom he had fallen in love, 21-year-old Rumana Aslam.

But the decision threatened to split his family apart since arranged marriages are often customary in Pakistan, so he came up with this alternative approach. (PA)

Soggy air raid

A man was arrested after hurling wet toilet paper from a plane on to a New Jersey secondary school.

Children were on the playing fields at Westwood High School as the pilot dropped his soggy cargo. There were no reports of injuries.

The single-engine plane landed at an airport nearby. The pilot, whose name was not released, may face federal charges of reckless operation of an aircraft and dropping objects from a plane without authorisation, said the Federal Aviation Administration. (PA)

A car for the pastor

An American pastor who drew international criticism by threatening to burn a copy of the Koran has ended up with an unlikely reward – a free car.

At the height of the controversy, New Jersey car dealer Brad Benson offered Florida pastor Terry Jones a 2011 Hyundai Accent worth £9,000 if he would not carry out his promise to burn the Muslim holy book on the anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks.

Pastor Jones did not burn the Koran – but said the offer Benson had made in a quirky radio advert was not the reason and he only heard about it a few weeks after September 11. He plans to donate the car to an organisation that helps abused Muslim women. (PA)

World’s longest cable car line

Armenia on Saturday launched the world’s longest cable car line, a 5.7-kilometre engineering feat that spans a spectacular gorge to the country’s ancient Tatev monastery.

Gathered in Armenia’s southern mountains near the border with Iran, guests including President Serzh Sarkisian and the head of the Armenian Apostolic Church, Karekin II, took part as the cable car link launched its first official voyage over the Vorotan River Gorge.

The link will allow year-round access to Armenia’s ninth-century Tatev monastery complex, one of the country’s most important religious centres and a major tourist attraction.

The reversible cable car line cost €13 million.

The cable car travels at a speed of 37 kilometres per hour and a one-way journey takes 11 minutes. At its highest point over the gorge, the car travels 320 metres (1,056 feet) above ground level. (AFP)

Runaway chimp goes to university

A female student at Al-Quds University in the Gaza Strip attended class on Saturday only to find she was not the first to arrive and had been beaten to it by a young male chimpanzee.

Alerted by her cries, campus police called a nearby zoo and were told that one of its chimps had made a dash for freedom, the university said.

The runaway was recaptured and is now safely back in his cage. (AFP)