World Briefs

On Valentine’s Day, traditional symbols of love like roses and chocolates are nowhere in sight on the historic Tumski bridge spanning the river Oder in Wroclaw, western Poland.

This favourite haunt of lovers is covered in padlocks – thousands of them in various sizes and colours and all symbolising undying love. “We throw away the key and our love lasts for centuries,” says Jola, a university student who clamped a Valentine’s Day padlock on the bridge with her boyfriend Maciej.

“It’s a place where we seal our love so it can never escape us,” Maciej, a fellow student, said.

The romantic ritual of “love padlocks” has also caught on in other European cities, notably Paris, Rome, Kiev and Riga. (AFP)

‘Kissathon’ record

Seven amorous but exhausted couples smooched their way to a new world record in Thailand yesterday with the longest continuous kiss lasting more than 32 hours – and kept going.

The contestants broke the previous world record of 32 hours seven minutes and 14 seconds set in Germany and were vying to become the last ones locking lips for a prize of about $3,250 cash and a diamond ring, organisers said.

Somporn Naksuetrong, general manager of the Louis Tussaud’s Waxworks in the resort of Pattaya which hosted the Valentine’s Day event, said: “But at the same time I’m worried for our contestants. They looked really tired. We’ve already prepared medical services for them.”

He said he was particularly concerned about one 51-year-old woman and her 37-year-old husband. (AFP)

Roof-riding kills two

Two students were found dead in the Moscow metro, apparently from hitting equipment while riding on the roof of a train, ITAR-TASS news agency reported yesterday, quoting police.

“The body of a 19-year-old student from the University of Tourism was found on the roof of a train’s leading car. He had died of multiple injuries,” the report said.

The other student, who attended Moscow’s Pedagogical University, was found on the tracks between Kuntsevskaya and Pionerskaya stations, it added. (AFP)

Plane crash

Fourteen people were killed yesterday when a small commercial plane with about 20 passengers on board crashed near the Honduran capital Tegucigalpa, a Red Cross official said. The flight had had two government ministers booked but luckily missed the flight because they weren’t on time. (AFP)

All-chocolate room

Lithuanian shoppers yesterday had a sweet Valentine’s Day visual treat in the form of an entire chocolate room, but will have to wait to actually taste a piece of the walls and decor, organisers said.

“We wanted to create something special for Valentine’s Day. The chocolate room looks just like a traditional Lithuanian sitting-room,” Frederikas Jansonas, spokesman for the Akropolis shopping mall in the capital Vilnius, said.

The 17-square-metre room is made of chocolate from floor to ceiling, and also contains chocolate furniture and interior decorations such as candlesticks, pictures and books. Seven artists used 300 kilogrammes of chocolate to create it. (AFP)

Playboy Mansion

A health investigation is underway at Hugh Heffner’s Playboy Mansion following an outbreak of respiratory problems which could be linked to a party held in the mansion’s grounds.

Between 70 and 80 people reportedly became infected after the mansion played host to 700 attendees on the last night of a three-day global conference for internet entrepreneurs on February 3.

LA County Health Department issued a statement on Saturday confirming that they were investigating the suspected outbreak among attendees of the DOMAINfest conference on the west side of Los Angeles County. (AFP)

Jazz great dies

British Jazz pianist Sir George Shearing, who wrote the standard Lullaby of Birdland and headed a famed quintet bearing his name, died yesterday in New York, aged 91.

Dale Sheets, his manager, said the pianist, blind since birth, died of heart failure.

The George Shearing Quintet’s first big hit was September in the Rain, in 1949. He wrote Lullaby of Birdland in 1952, naming it for the famous New York jazz club. (PA)