World Briefs

An Israeli telecoms company is offering ultra-Orthodox Jewish clients a kosher smartphone with Hassidic folk-music ring-tones and a menu in Yiddish, a newspaper reported yesterday.

“This phone has no text messages, internet access, Facebook or email. It doesn’t even have a camera... And if you call from it on the Sabbath, you will pay an exorbitant price of 10 shekels ($3/2 per minute),” said the paper, Yediot Aharonot.

But to win rabbinical approval for the device, which is based on an Alcatel T-701 handset, local importer Accel Telecom had to first prove that tech-savvy users would not be able to work their magic to circumvent the safeguards and succumb to sin. (AFP)

Fair way

An all-male golf club in the UK could be changing its rules to admit women.

The 168-year-old St Andrews Golf Club is considering changing its constitution to comply with equality law.

Last year’s Act does not ban single-sex clubs, but does not allow private clubs to discriminate on the basis of gender. In a letter to members, club officials wrote that a ban on women could be a “retrograde step” and set out options. (PA)

Where’s Gordon?

Gordon Brown’s official Downing Street portrait should be used in the House of Commons for “identification purposes”, a Conservative MP has said.

Greg Hands criticised the former Labour prime minister for speaking only once in the chamber in the past year and said his new portrait, unveiled on Wednesday, could prove useful for MPs who may have forgotten what he looks like. (PA)

Superman scrapped

The Man of Steel may have fallen victim to scrap metal thieves after raiders struck with a hacksaw to remove a plaque near the house where two high-school classmates created the Superman character in 1933.

The city of Cleveland, Ohio, installed the plaque eight years ago. Officials say it will be replaced. (PA)

Fowl sex curb

Amorous chickens in a New Jersey township are having their mating times restricted by law. Roosters must also show they are disease-free and not crow too loud.

Hopewell Township residents can have up to a half-dozen hens on half-acre plots, but roosters will be allowed in with the hens for only 10 days a year.

Any roosters that crow too long can be banned from the property for two years. (PA)

Monkey memory

Monkeys have a human-like ability to recall shapes from memory and “draw” them on a computer screen, a study has shown.

The animals’ memory skills go beyond simply recognising previously seen images. Unlike recognition, recall demonstrates an ability to remember things not present “at the moment”.

The research, led by Dr Benjamin Basile from Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, US, was published in the journal Current Biology. (PA)

Vampires spooked

Fans may get the shivers watching TV’s Vampire Diaries, but star Nina Dobrev said the cast and crew were the ones spooked while filming at the Gaither Plantation in Georgia, US.

The actress said several creepy, unexplained events took place during the recent shoot, including a piano apparently playing on its own and lights going on and off by themselves.

Ms Dobrev also said everyone had a collective “weird feeling” at the site, even though “nobody could pinpoint” why. (PA)

Wife’s hoax

A reported mother-and-son kidnapping case which sparked a major police hunt was a hoax staged by a depressed housewife trying to win her husband’s attention.

Hundreds of Korean police were mobilised nationwide on Tuesday after the 37-year-old woman surnamed Lee claimed she and her five-year-old son had been abducted. She sent a mobile text message to her husband, asking him to transfer 150 million won ($138,770) to her account to pay a ransom.

Police traced the phone to a district in central Seoul. They raided a hotel room, but found Ms Lee and her son peacefully asleep.

Officers did not press charges and let the woman go home, as she had been suffering from depression. (AFP)

‘Prophet’ faces fine

Taiwanese authorities have threatened to fine a self-proclaimed prophet unless he removes remarks from his blog predicting an “apocalyptic quake” that triggered panic preparations among numerous followers.

“Issuing unauthorised forecasts on earthquakes is punishable by a fine” of up to Tw$1 million ($33,000), Lin Yeu-woo, a weather bureau spokesman, told reporters.

Dozens of Taiwanese have reportedly rushed to prepare makeshift shelters in central Taiwan after the man, known only as “Teacher Wang”, alleged that a huge earthquake and tsunami would destroy the island next month.

Wang advised people to stay in cargo containers, which he said would be safer than regular buildings, the paper said, also quoting construction workers as saying that they were rushing to finish by early May. (AFP)