World Briefs

Fawlty Towers and Monty Python actor John Cleese has been charged with speeding.

The 6ft 5in comedian’s Mini Cooper was photographed exceeding a 30mph limit on the A4 at Saltford, between Bath and Bristol, on November 6 last year, Bath Magistrates’ Court said.

He is also charged with failing to provide the identity of the driver of the car.

A source said that Mr Cleese, 71, who lives in Bath with his jeweller girlfriend Jennifer Wade, owned the car but was not behind the wheel when it was clocked by a static camera.

Mr Cleese’s credits include 1988’s A Fish Called Wanda, the Harry Potter films and two James Bond movies. (PA)

Needle in lung

A mystery needle found in the lung of a former South Korean president has sparked a controversy involving a famed acupuncturist and the country’s 20,000 oriental medicine doctors.

The seven-centimetre needle was discovered last month by doctors who examined Roh Tae-Woo for violent coughing.

It was later surgically removed and doctors reported no serious health setbacks for the 78-year-old former general, who ruled from 1988 to 1993.

But the Association of Korean Oriental Medicine has urged prosecutors to investigate the case, saying its members were not involved but an unlicensed acupuncturist may have been. (AFP)

Putin as St Paul

A new Russian religious sect worships Vladimir Putin as the reincarnation of Paul the Apostle whose career follows in the footsteps of the early Christian missionary, a news report has said.

The sect is based near the Volga River city of Nizhny Novgorod and led by Morther Fotina – a former convict who once worked on the local rail road.

“According to the Bible, Paul the Apostle was a military commander at first,” the sect’s founder told the weekly.

“In his days in the KGB, Putin also did some rather unrighteous things. But once he became president, he was imbued with the holy spirit, and just like the apostle, he started heading his flock,” she said.

Various Russian groups and organisations periodically come out with signs of their appreciation for Putin, a former president and spy who is mulling a return to the Kremlin next year. (AFP)

Prison break-in

Burglars made an unlikely decision to break into the grounds of a UK prison where they managed to make off with valuable equipment.

The thieves broke in through the perimeter fence at HMP Sudbury in Derbyshire before forcing open the door of a workshop, a spokesman for Derbyshire Police said.

It appears they managed to make a hole in the fence before stealing metalwork tools used by inmates at the open prison from one of the outbuildings in the grounds, he said. Built as a hospital for the US Air Force for the D-Day landings, HMP Sudbury was converted to a prison in 1948 and currently houses 581 inmates. (PA)

On the run

A German shepherd escaped from a vet’s by opening his kennel, tripping the dead bolt on the clinic’s back door and pulling down the handle to get outside.

The dog was seven miles away when animal workers found him and reunited him with his owners.

The vet called the dog’s recovery from flu-like symptoms “impressive”. (PA)

Calorie control

A New York City deli has been hit with legal challenge to its Instant Heart Attack sandwich.

The Heart Attack Grill restaurant chain has accused the 2nd Avenue Deli of stealing its idea to mock healthy eating with calorie-packed dishes like the Triple Bypass Burger.

The deli’s sandwich is a mountain of two potato pancakes and a piled-high choice of corned beef, pastrami, turkey or salami costing £14.60. (PA)

No forgiveness

The Irish Government has ruled out widespread debt forgiveness for struggling borrowers in the face of a High Court warning that banks are hounding their own customers to suicide.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny and several Cabinet ministers rushed to defend the coalition’s response to the personal debt crisis after the startling intervention by one of the country’s top court officials.

Master of the High Court Edmund Honohan, a brother of Central Bank governor Patrick Honohan, accused lenders who were “cheerleaders for the Celtic Tiger” of pursuing debtors to the bitter end. (PA)

Fake fur

The RSPCA welcomed new rules forcing clothes manufacturers to distinguish real fur from fake.

Europe-wide legislation appro­ved by the European Parliament will make it compulsory for clothes including genuine fur or leather to be labelled as including “non-textile parts of animal origin”.

The new labelling rule does not come into force for two and a half years, giving manufacturers time to adjust. (PA)