World Briefs

A tiny camera has been surgically implanted into the back of a New York University professor’s head in the name of art. Visual artist Wafaa Bilal had the surgery for a project called The 3rd I, commissioned by a new museum in the Gulf state of Qatar that opens December 30.

The Iraqi-born artist will wear the camera for a year and capture images at one-minute intervals that will be transmitted to monitors at the museum. He said details of the project will be revealed at a December 15 preview at the museum.

Picture shows Mr Bilal holding the prototype of a digital camera that he had implanted in the back of his head, in New York. (PA)

‘Protected polygamy’ warning

A lawyer for British Columbia’s government warned a judge that declaring polygamy a protected religious practice would make Canada the only Western country to allow multiple marriages.

The British Columbia Supreme Court is examining whether banning polygamy violates Canada’s version of the bill of rights in a case that will focus on the small polygamous community of Bountiful.

Craig Jones, a lawyer for the province, said all forms of polygamy contributed to the discrimination of women and the sexualisation of young girls. (PA)

Children’s glass alert

US regulators have launched an investigation into lead levels in drinking glasses depicting comic book and film characters, saying they are subject to strict standards for “children’s products”.

Testing commissioned by The Associated Press revealed that the glasses contained lead up to 1,000 times the government’s limit for children’s products. The items also contained lesser amounts of the more-toxic metal cadmium.

After hearing of the investigation by the US Consumer Product Safety Commission, importer Vandor of Utah said it would recall the glasses, which feature colourful designs depicting the likes of Superman, Wonder Woman and characters from The Wizard of Oz. (PA)

Rats awaiting adoption

Around a thousand rats are awaiting adoption in California after being rescued from a house featured on a reality TV show.

The Humane Society brought the rodents from Los Angeles to San Jose, where more than 30 volunteers and staff helped move the rats into Andy’s Pet Shop, which agreed to temporarily house them.

Lauren Paul of the non-profit North Star Rescue told the San Jose Mercury News that the previous owner’s daughter had brought home a pregnant rat and the litter began multiplying and tearing the house apart. (PA)

Stuck in bathroom for three weeks

French firefighters freed a 69-year-old woman who spent three weeks trapped in her bathroom and whose nocturnal pleas for help by tapping on pipes were ignored by neighbours, police said yesterday

The woman emerged in a “very weakened” state when rescue workers, alerted by neighbours worried because they had not seen her for some time, broke into her home on Friday in the Paris suburb of Epinay-sous-Senart to extricate her.

She had got stuck after the bathroom door lock broke.

The woman, who is recuperating in hospital, survived by drinking warm water from the bathroom tap and at night-time tried to call for help by tapping on piping, police said.

But neighbours in the apartment block said they thought someone was doing home repair work and launched a petition to find out who it was and have it stopped. (AFP)

Child’s brief protest

A 13-year-old American boy campaigning to turn the demilitarised zone between North and South Korea into a peace park was taken away by Chinese police after staging a brief protest near Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.

Jonathan Lee unfurled a sign saying “Peace treaty” and “Nuclear- free DMZ children’s peace forest” as he stood outside the Forbidden City.

A man believed to be a plain-clothes officer grabbed the tee­nager’s sign less than a minute later and waved away journalists who had been contacted by the boy’s family ahead of the event. (PA)

Controversial Pope book

The author of a controversial new book in which Pope Benedict XVI says for the first time he approves of condom use to reduce the risk of disease presented his volume in the Vatican yesterday.

In the book, which is expected to go on sale in at least 18 languages, the Pope also said he could retire if his health worsens and spoke of his torment over the flood of reported cases of child abuse by clergymen.

The volume, entitled Light of the World: The Pope, the Church and the Signs of the Times, is based on 20 hours of interviews with the 83-year-old pontiff conducted by German journalist Peter Seewald, a Catholic convert. Several extracts from the book were released to the public on Saturday.

“In this case or that case, there can be... in the intention of reducing the risk of infection, a first step in a movement toward a different way, a more human way, of living sexuality,” Pope Benedict is quoted as saying in the book.

The Pope gave the example of a male prostitute but his spokes-man, Federico Lombardi, said it could apply to male, female or transsexual prostitutes. (AFP)