World Briefs

An Australian doctor was charged yesterday with endangering his patients’ lives after police said he infected nearly 50 women with hepatitis C at an abortion clinic.

James Peters, 61, who worked as an anaesthesiologist at the Melbourne clinic, was charged with 54 counts of conduct endangering life, negligently causing serious injury and recklessly causing serious injury. The most serious charge carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison.

Dr Peters was released on a A$250,000 bail when he appeared briefly at Melbourne Magistrates Court.

He was not required to enter pleas to the charges, which relate to 49 patients at the clinic who health officials say contracted the same strain of hepatitis C as Dr Peters . (PA)

HK banker nabbed

Police arrested a Hong Kong-based Deutsche Bank executive at the city’s international airport last week for allegedly carrying an unlicensed firearm, a report said yesterday.

Citing a court charge sheet, Dow Jones Newswires said the May 18 incident involved Shen Yan - the head of the bank’s North Asian institutional client group - who was caught with a pistol at an immigration checkpoint.

He was later released on bail worth HK$100,000 ($12,850), it said.

Police yesterday confirmed they arrested a 43-year-old man for possession of arms without a licence at Hong Kong’s main airport, but declined to confirm his identity. The case has been adjourned to June 30, police said. (AFP)

Toilet block sold

A seafront toilet block has been sold at auction for £104,000.

The two-storey block on the eastern promenade of Sheringham in Norfolk had been expected to fetch between £30,000 and £50,000.

Auction House East Anglia described the buyer as a “builder specialising in unusual buildings” who planned to develop it for his family.

Trevor Ivory, a North Norfolk district councillor, said he was “overjoyed” at the price. (PA)

Bi Bi remix

The deejay who remixed a rambling speech by Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi with club beats that went viral on YouTube has taken on a new regional leader - Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu, better known as “Bibi.”

First Israeli musician and DJ Noy Alooshe transformed a 75-minute Gaddafi oration into a catchy dance track called Zenga, Zenga, featuring the strongman alongside footage of a gyrating girl in hotpants.

This week it was the Israeli Prime Minister, whose slick 45-minute address to the US Congress won him more than 20 standing ovations – and a YouTube remix called Bi Bi Pro Americano. (AFP)

Student’s find

A 22-year-old Australian university student has solved a problem which has puzzled astrophysicists for decades, discovering part of the so-called “missing mass” of the universe during her summer break.

Undergraduate Amelia Fraser-McKelvie made the breakthrough during a holiday internship with a team at Monash University’s School of Physics, locating the mystery material within vast structures called “filaments of galaxies”.

Monash astrophysicist Dr Kevin Pimbblet explained that scientists had previously detected matter that was present in the early history of the universe but that could not now be located. (AFP)

Beats off robber

An 89-year-old Australian woman who used a handbag to beat off a knife-carrying would-be robber said yesterday she would do it all again, adding she would have “killed him if I could”.

The woman, known only by the pseudonym Jean, was chatting with two friends in an underground car park in Melbourne earlier this week after buying a bottle of wine to enjoy after a day’s shopping when a “grubby” man approached.

When he allegedly held a knife to the throat of Jean’s 82-year-old lifelong friend and demanded her handbag, Jean acted without hesitation. (AFP)

Ibiza evacuates 800

About 800 people, including British and German tourists, have been evacuated from homes and hotels on the Spanish island of Ibiza because of the worst forest fire ever recorded on the Mediterranean resort.

Regional government emergency situations spokesman Asuncion Saiz said a fire that started on Wednesday has burned about 2,000 hectares of pine forest in the north of the island. (PA)

Einstein honoured

The fourth of Europe’s robot freighters, due to be launched to the International Space Station (ISS) in early 2013, has been named after Albert Einstein, the European Space Agency (ESA) said.

The 20-tonne Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) is one of Europe’s main contributions to the multinational ISS project.

Launched aboard a beefed-up Ariane 5 rocket, the unmanned craft is designed to head to the ISS under its own power and then dock, carrying food and other essentials.

The trip is one-way because the ship, after being laden with waste, is jettisoned and then burns up in the atmosphere.

The first ATV, named after the 19th-century French trailblazer of science fiction Jules Verne, flew in 2008. (AFP)