World Briefs

Taiwanese health authorities investigating illegal gender-selective abortions warned yesterday that doctors found guilty of the practice may have their licences revoked.

The stern warning came as Chiu Shu-ti, director-general of the Bureau of the Health Promotion said last week that up to 3,000 female babies were presumed “missing” from Taiwan’s population last year due to abortions.

“Such abortions have seriously violated medical ethics and human rights,” said an official from the bureau.

Any doctors caught conducting the abortions may face a fine of up to Tw$500,000 ($17,400) or even their licences be revoked.”

An investigation by the bureau last month found 10 out of every 11 babies delivered in a clinic in New Taipei City last year were boys. Nine out of 10 babies born in another hospital during the same period were male. (AFP)

Gaga ‘like Jesus’

Pop star Lady Gaga is trying to convey the same message as Jesus, according to an academic at a leading university.

“She is basically saying what Jesus is saying – we should love God and love each other it seems,” said Dr Pete Ward, a senior lecturer at King’s College, London.

The comments came after the controversial US star appeared at the Radio 1 Big Weekend in Carlisle wearing knickers emblazoned with a crucifix. (PA)

Mail order gecko

A gallivanting gecko has turned up safe and well after hitching a 100-mile ride inside an envelope following an internet shopping mix-up.

Sahara, the leopard gecko, sneaked into an open parcel at his owner’s home in Stechford, near Birmingham, and spent two days inside the envelope before arriving in Finchampstead in Berkshire.

Shocked Phillipa Durrant, 44, who opened the package, had been expecting a belt she had bought on internet shopping site eBay. (PA)

Records mix-up

A police force has admitted a records mix-up after wrongly revealing a nine-year-old boy had been arrested for drink-driving.

The “schoolboy” was in fact a 19-year-old male but his date of birth had been initially inputted incorrectly on to the custody system.

Cumbria Constabulary released the information at the weekend in response to a Freedom of Information request for details of under 18s arrested for car crime in the north of England over the past two years. (PA)

Bus disaster

At least 12 passengers died when a speeding bus overturned as the driver swerved to avoid a cyclist on a road in India.

Police said 40 other people were injured, including the driver.

Officers believe the cyclist rode away unscathed. (PA)

Gory surprise

After residents in a Singapore apartment building complained their water was strangely yellow and foamy, a search discovered a corpse in the storage tank.

None of the building’s residents had reported illnesses related to the contaminated water despite some cooking or washing with it.

The victim appeared to be an Indonesian resident who had been heard arguing with her Bangladeshi lover. (PA)

Shock treatment

A man survived being hit by lightning while helping set up tents for a Scout camp in Pennsylvania.

The 49-year-old was standing by a tree when he was struck by a bolt.

He was up and walking around when police arrived, although he was treated later at a hospital for a wound where the lightning bolt apparently exited his body. (PA)

Biofuel protest

Campaigners in the UK are protesting against the use of biofuels in vehicles - using adverts on buses which go past Transport Secretary Philip Hammond’s office.

ActionAid is concerned that targets to increase the use of the supposedly green fuels, which are made from crops such as sugar cane, soy and oil seed rape, are pushing people in poor countries off their land and increasing hunger.

The adverts, which urge Mr Hammond to consider the impacts that biofuels are having in developing countries, are on buses which stop outside the Department for Transport (DfT) in Westminster every five minutes. (PA)

Embarrassment

British artist Tracey Emin known for her controversial work has said she had shocked even herself after featuring her used tampons in a major new retrospective of her work.

The 47-year-old admitted the display in the show Love Is What You Want, which opens at the Hayward Gallery in London tomorrow, made her feel “queasy.”

“I do feel a little bit embarrassed about the tampons in the corner. When I unpacked them I thought: oh no,” said Ms Emin.

But she said she made the work around 12 years ago and it felt “perfectly natural” at the time.

The tampons are displayed in glass cases next to a pregnancy test in a work titled The History of Painting Part 1. (AFP)

Getting the point

Tourism officials have made a display out of the hundreds of pencil sharpeners collected by an Ohio minister who died last year.

The Rev. Paul Johnson kept his collection of 3,400 sharpeners in a small shed he called his museum.

He started it after his wife gave him a few sharpeners as a gift in the late 1980s.

Rev. Johnson had also kept them organised in categories, that include cats, the Christmas season and Disneyland. (PA)