World Briefs

Iran will lodge a formal complaint to the world football body after its women’s team were barred from playing in an Olympic qualifier for wearing the traditional Islamic headscarf, media reports said yesterday.

The FIFA organiser, a Bahraini national, prevented the Iranian side from playing Jordan in a London 2012 Olympics qualifying match, shortly before it was due to start in Amman on Friday, citing their “hijab”. However, Ali Kafashian head of Iran’s Football Federation said, “The (Iranian) Football Federation had already discussed with FIFA director (Sepp Blatter) for Iranian women’s participation with full Islamic hijab. We managed to acquire Blatter’s consent on this matter”.

The mandatory Islamic dress code observed in Iran requires all women to cover their body, head to toe. In order to be allowed to function domestically and compete internationally, the women football team play in full tracksuits, headscarves and neck warmers. (AFP)

Hapless thief

A hapless teenage thief who allegedly broke into a Perth shop to steal sweets was arrested after a receipt spike sliced through his hand, police said Monday.

The 16-year-old and two others allegedly forced their way into the store on Sunday evening but as the boy tried to jump over the front counter he impaled himself on the spike.

“One of the offenders, a 16-year-old boy, has impaled his left hand on the spike which has proceeded all the way through his hand and right out the other side,” police spokesman Sergeant Gerry Cassidy told reporters.

The trio fled the scene, mostly with sweets, and went straight to the nearest hospital, where police later arrested them. They were charged with aggravated burglary. (AFP)

Gull terror

A pair of elderly women Nancy Bond and Gloria Prinn say they are too terrified to leave their home following a series of aerial attacks by gulls near their flat in Falmouth, Cornwall.

The RSPB said the gulls nesting on house roofs are likely to be protecting their young and the problem should disappear when the chicks have flown. (PA)

Savings party

A 100-year-old woman has been treated to a birthday party at her bank - where she still holds the same savings account her father opened for her in 1913.

June Gregg mentioned to a friend that her account with a Huntington Bank branch in southern Ohio dated back to before the First World War.

Branch manager Doug Shoemaker did some digging and confirmed it was true, adding the account number changed just once, when Columbus-based Huntington acquired what had been called the Savings Bank in Chillicothe. (PA)

‘Scary names’

The President of Tajikistan has warned his compatriots against giving their children scary names, saying names derived from the words for wolf or war made him shudder.

President Emomali Rahmon urged parents to read through the traditional Persian epic Shahnameh (The Book of Kings), written a millenium ago to pick adequate, good, beautiful names for their children.

“I pay close attention to surnames and names when I appoint anyone to a leading post in the government,” Mr Rahmon said in a televised speech. He added names must be beautiful because they play an important role in determining a person’s destiny from birth.

Tajikistan, a Persian-speaking nation of seven million is the poorest state in ex-Soviet Central Asia that has sought to slacken Russian cultural influence since the collapse of the USSR in 1991. (AFP)

Tweet apology

A Malaysian social activist had to post an apology on Twitter 100 times over three days in a novel settlement to a defamation row.

Fahmi Fadzil said he tweeted in January that a pregnant friend of his had been treated badly by her employers at Female Magazine, owned by Blu Inc Media. The magazine’s lawyers threatened legal action and a settlement was reached in March, taking the resolution to the internet because Mr Fahmi could not afford to take out newspaper advertisements.

“The only demand is to tweet the apology 100 times for three days, and that will be the final and full settlement of this,” Mr Fahmi said.

So he had to tweet, “I’ve DEFAMED Blu Inc Media & Female Magazine. My tweets on their HR Policies are untrue. I retract those words & hereby apologise”.

Under the settlement, he was to tweet the apology over three days and that worked out to about one apology tweet every 35 minutes. (AFP)