World Briefs

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi may be reviled by many of his own people and the international community, but he’s enjoying an unexpected surge of popularity – as a music video star.

A remix of a rambling 75-minute speech Colonel Gaddafi delivered on Tuesday, set to dance music and featuring him alongside footage of two gyrating girls, has gone viral on the internet. It has racked up almost half a million views on YouTube since it was posted three days ago.

Called Zenga Zenga, the music video mixes Col Gaddafi’s quotes with club beats, using lines in which he vows to fight “inch by inch, home by home, alley by alley” as the chorus for the song. The clip was created by Israeli musician and DJ Noy Alooshe and appears to be wildly popular in the Arab world. It can be seen at www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBY-0n4esNY.

Mr Alooshe said he was inspired after seeing the speech, in which Col Gaddafi made various wild gestures and banged on his podium.

“It seemed to be very comic visually...it was funny, like a parody,” he added. (AFP)

Toddler locked in

A 14-month-old girl who wandered away from her mother and grandmother spent several hours trapped inside a time-locked bank vault while authorities pumped fresh air through vents, police said.

The locksmith pried the toddler unharmed from the vault four hours after she went missing while visiting a grandparent who worked at a Wells Fargo bank branch in the greater Atlanta suburb of Conyers.

The child apparently strayed into the open vault as the bank was closing on Friday – just before an employee shut the door. (PA)

Red carpet

Lucy Walker had no time to worry about her nomination in the 83rd annual Academy Awards because she was more concerned about dressing up for the ceremony.

The director of the transformative garbage dump chronicle Waste Land was among the nominees for the documentary feature Oscar.

“I’m a female documentary filmmaker. Nothing can scare me as much as standing on a red carpet next to movie stars,” she said. (PA)

Golf first

A British entrepreneur is putting on the world’s first amateur golf competition in North Korea.

North Korea – regarded as one of the world’s most secretive societies – has agreed to let Dylan Harris, 32, from Wigan, organise a golf tournament at the country’s one and only golf course in Pyongyang.

Mr Harris, who runs Lupine Travel which specialises in unusual getaways, organised the event after a request from a customer who said he had played in almost every other country in the world. (PA)

Slogan slammed

A police force’s decision to spend nearly £11,000 of public money creating a three-word “brand” slogan has been labelled “absurd” by a taxpayers’ campaign group, called The TaxPayers’ Alliance.

The group said Cumbria Police had “wasted money” by paying a marketing firm £10,880 to create the “Safer Stronger Cumbria” logo.

A force spokesman defended the spending, saying the “brand and logo” had helped police “leave a footprint that people can easily recognise”. (PA)

Parking Revenge

Enraged UK drivers are taking revenge on people who park poorly, according to a new survey.

Upset motorists have gone as far as damaging offending vehicles and slashing tyres, the poll by webuyanycar.com showed.

Based on responses from 3,000 people, the survey showed that 25 per cent have verbally attacked those they have accused of parking “crimes”. (PA)

Fuel hopes

A Massachusetts biotech company is claiming it can produce renewable diesel fuel using the same ingredients that make grass grow.

Joule Unlimited in Cambridge says it has invented a genetical­ly-engineered cyano­bacterium that simply secretes the diesel – or ethanol – at remarkable rates.

The organisms live in water and take in sunlight and carbon dioxide, producing and secreting ethanol or hydrocarbons – the basis of various fuels, such as diesel – as a by-product of photosynthesis. (PA)