A Saudi who defied a ban on women driving in the kingdom was killed with three of her 10 female passengers when her car overturned in a crash, an internet news site reported yesterday.

A Riyadh police official said that the seven other women were all injured in Saturday night’s crash in a desert area where young Saudis gather to stage car races. The woman, in her twenties, was driving a four-wheel-drive vehicle when she lost control and hit a barrier.

There have been several incidents in recent years of Saudi women being killed in accidents while driving despite the ban. Women in Saudi Arabia are forced to cover themselves from head to toe in public and cannot travel without written permission from a male guardian. (AFP)

Pampered pets

One in five pampered pets is made a homemade meal every day, a survey revealed.

On a daily basis, 20 per cent of cats and dogs are cooked a meal by their owners.

The survey, conducted on 3,000 British dog and cat owners during Drontal’s My Pet Superstar competition, also found that 10 per cent of pets eat meals at the table with their owners while nine per cent of cats and dogs are fed with human cutlery. Meanwhile, 50 per cent of pet owners regularly let their cat or dog sleep on their bed.

And 40 per cent of animal owners buy their pets Christmas and birthday presents. (PA)

Cows trigger train derailment

Three cows who wandered onto the line triggered a derailment of a train heading from Lisbon to Madrid and caused major disruption for passengers, Portuguese rail operator Refer said yesterday.

The train partially came off the tracks near Castelo de Vide, around 200 kilometres northeast of Lisbon and close to the border with Spain.

The incident, in which no one was injured, was caused by three cows which had wandered onto the line.

Passengers heading to Madrid were able to complete their journey by boarding a train coming in the opposite direction and which had to return to the Spanish capital. Passengers headed to Lisbon had to complete their journey by road. (AFP)

Expletive receipt

A Burger King restaurant manager and staff member have been sacked after a customer found the four-lettered word on his meal receipt.

The foul-mouthed exhortation appeared twice, in computer type, at the top of the receipt for a Double Whopper with cheese, onion rings and a small drink in the Burger King outlet in Sacramento, California,.

The customer said it was humiliating while Burger King’s management said the franchise holder of the restaurant had sacked the manager of the franchise and the member of staff involved.

The insulted customer said Burger King had offered him vouchers for free food at the restaurant, but he never planned to eat there again. (AFP)

No Thanksgiving turkey in Disneyland

The Thanksgiving turkey traditionally spared by the US President will no longer go to Disneyland, where it has been a star of the show in recent years, the theme park has said.

As the US gears up for its annual feast next Thursday, a spokesman said the California resort had decided to end the custom of hosting the pardoned bird, which has been part of its Thanksgiving parade.

The White House meanwhile said the spared turkey – to be pardoned by President Barack Obama in a Rose Garden ceremony next Wednesday – will go to a different home. (AFP)

Iranian girls urged to marry at 16

Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has urged girls to marry at the age of 16, newspapers reported.

The President criticised the current average age of marriage of 24 to 26. The report by the state-owned Jam-e Jam quoted Mr Ahmadinejad as saying: “We should take the age of marriage for boys to 20 and for girls to about 16 and 17.”

Mr Ahmadinejad has long sought an increase of population, rejecting family planning as a Western import. (AP)

Luck of the draw

A election tie was settled by drawing playing cards. The contest, for a seat on the Kingsbury Grade General Improvement District board in Minden, Nevada, US, was decided when Natalie Yanish drew the ace of clubs to Robert McDowell’s eight of diamonds.

The two tied for third place in the election on November 2. State law allows candidates to settle ties by either drawing cards or flipping a coin. (PA)

Pot busters

Soldiers accused of breaking into a Colorado medical cannabis dispensary and then accidentally locking themselves inside told police they planned to destroy the cannabis - not smoke or sell it.

A police affidavit said two of the three Fort Carson soldiers told officers they were trying to steal the cannabis so they could get rid of it. The three were arrested after they accidentally locked themselves in the Colorado Springs dispensary during a burglary attempt. (PA)

Direct hit

A man who says he was knocked unconscious when a lid exploded off a jar of fruit and hit him in the face was offered $150,000 to settle his lawsuit against a grocer and a fruit company.

Del Monte Foods of San Francisco and Cincinnati-based Kroger insist there is no credible evidence that the jar was unsafe, but they made the offer after a judge refused to dismiss a lawsuit by Darryl Alexander of Southfield, Michigan, US.

However, Mr Alexander’s lawyer said the offer is too low because his client has permanent eye damage. (PA)

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