World Briefs

Movie hunk Johnny Depp is swapping blockbusters for building blocks - after being turned into a Lego character.

The star’s role as Captain Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean will feature in a new Lego video game to be launched later this year.

Computer boffins have turned the grizzled pirate into a mini-figure for the game which will be launched in May.

Depp, who based his character on Rolling Stones star Keith Richards, is seen with bandana, goatee beard and tricorn hat in his Lego guise.

The firm has teamed up with Disney Interactive Studios and TT Games to create the Pirates Of The Caribbean game. (PA)

Historic stalker

It is generally assumed that stalkers are a product of the modern age but more than 170 years ago a teenager relentlessly pursued Queen Victoria.

Edward Jones was aged just 14 when he first broke into Buckingham Palace in 1838 and he returned twice more to wander around the monarch’s private apartment, even stealing some of the Queen’s underwear.

The obsessed young man was tried three times and imprisoned twice before the authorities eventually spirited him away to a foreign country to ensure his silence, according to the new book by London history expert Jan Bondeson. (PA)

Globe trotting

A man is taking the world to America - pushing a giant globe across the United States.

Erik Bendl’s travels with his six-foot globe began after his mother died of complications from diabetes in 1987, and he started pushing it in parades across his native Kentucky with the aim of raising awareness of the condition.

He has now pushed the globe 2,200 miles in 23 states, and is currently doing 10 miles a day travelling from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to Savannah, Georgia. (PA)

Happy nation

It is a nation known for its jubilant spirit, massive parties and seemingly intrinsic ability to celebrate anything under the sun - but politicians in Brazil still think a constitutional amendment is required to help ensure citizens have a happy life.

The amendment would insert the phrase “pursuit of happiness” into Article 6 of the constitution, which currently states that education, health, food, work, housing, leisure and security - among other issues - are the social rights of all citizens.

The country’s appropriately named Happier Movement said the amendment aims to help give citizens the right to hold the government to account to ensure it provides basic, vital services to everyone. (PA)

‘Rent-a-girlfriend’

A hoax website in France has revealed something poignant in modern society by offering to rent men a girlfriend who can stun relatives, friends or business partners with their charm and beauty.

“Have you had enough of being alone? Had enough of your wife?” loueunepetiteamie.com (translatable as rentagirlfriend.com) asked last month, stressing that the “rental services” it offered were strictly non-sexual.

After creating an internet buzz where chatrooms fought over the morality and legality of renting out fake girlfriends, all was confirmed on Tuesday to be a marketing ploy for a site selling classified ads.

In just one month, it said, the bogus site had 180,000 hits, 550 women offered their services as rental girlfriends – and 5,000 men wanted to hire one out. (AFP)

Botox in prison?

Mexican authorities yesterday probed suspected Botox treatment carried out on a high-profile female inmate in a Mexico City jail, after the prison’s director was dismissed in the case.

A doctor external to the Santa Martha Acatitla women’s prison had treated Sandra Avila Beltran, a glamorous inmate held on drug trafficking charges since 2007, for “an unauthorised therapeutic intervention,” the capital’s prison authorities said.

The treatment on the woman aged around 50 was anti-wrinkle Botox, an official from the prison authorities said.

Avila Beltran was last year cleared of trafficking charges but prosecutors are appealing against the decision. She was alleged to be a top leader of the powerful Sinaloa, or Pacific, drug gang, which earned her the nickname Queen of the Pacific.

The US is also seeking her extradition in connection with drug-trafficking. (AFP)

Lohan probed

Police in Los Angeles yesterday said they were investigating actress Lindsay Lohan over the possible theft of jewellery that was returned after detectives obtained a search warrant. (AP)