World Briefs

Belgium will enforce a burqa ban from July 23 with a fine and possible jail time for women who wear it, joining France as the second EU nation to forbid full veils, Belgian media said yesterday.

The new law was published Wednesday in the kingdom’s official journal after deputies approved it unanimously in parliament in April.

Offenders will face a fine of €137.50 and up to seven days behind bars. An estimated 270 people wear the face-covering niqab or the full-body burqa in Belgium.

France – home to Europe’s biggest Muslim population – became the first European Union country to ban the burqa on April 11. In France, a woman who repeatedly insists on appearing veiled in public can be fined €150 and ordered to attend re-education classes. (AFP)

Internet baby

A Dutch couple who bought a Belgian baby over the internet three years ago was yesterday given an eight-month suspended sentence.

Three years ago the Belgian parents of baby Jayden, who already had a child and ran into financial trouble, offered the newborn for sale for €7,500 on the web. A childless Dutch man and woman, now aged 28 and 29, took up the offer.

After Jayden was born in Ghent, Belgium on July 3, 2008, the Dutch couple declared the birth under their own name at the city’s municipality and returned to the Netherlands, where they used the Belgian documentation to register the birth in the town of Hardenberg.

Dutch prosecutors only charged the couple with an illegal adoption and using false documents as the Dutch penal code did not rule against the buying of a baby. (AFP)

Ferrari kid

A 14-year-old German boy sparked a major police operation after taking his father’s new Ferrari for a spin lasting several hours, authorities said yesterday.

The teenager’s parents bought the €200,000 sports car in Berlin and were on Tuesday returning to their home in Spain when police stopped them on a motorway near the German capital and detained them for questioning.

“The 14-year-old was unable to resist the temptation,” police said. “When an acquaintance of the family noticed the car and the boy were missing, he suspected theft or even an abduction.”

Following a major police operation lasting several hours, the “totally unrepentant” teenager returned to the police station in the undamaged black car. He now faces several charges including driving without a licence. (AFP)

Out of tune

When a woman complained that her songwriter boyfriend had never written a song about her, he allegedly choked her and hit her in the face. Police in Pennsylvania say 29-year-old Jason Banks attacked his girlfriend after she pointed out he had written songs about other women.

He has been charged with assault. (PA)

Football rules

A slim, yellowed pamphlet containing the earliest rules of football has sold for almost £900,000 at auction.

The printed 1859 rulebook, prepared for Sheffield Foot-Ball Club, is the only surviving copy and was accompanied by a handwritten draft of the regulations from a year earlier.

It was sold as part of a historic archive of the world’s oldest club - Sheffield FC – at Sotheby’s in London, fetching £881,250. (PA)

Monkey business

Chimpanzees are badly misunderstood because of the way they are portrayed as funny or entertaining, say researchers.

The wrong impression given of the apes could be threatening their survival in the wild, as well as endangering those kept in captivity – and their owners, it is claimed.

Chimps have a long history in films and TV adverts, such as the famous series promoting PG Tips tea. (PA)

Olympic ship

Germany started its warm-up for the 2012 Games in dramatic style when the largest ship ever to enter a lock in London’s Docklands sailed in.

There were just inches to spare as the 175.3-metre length and 23-metre beam luxury cruise liner MS Deutschland was berthed in South Quay, London Docklands.

The German Olympic ship is on a 36-hour test-run ahead of next summer when she will moor at the dock during the Olympics. Guests of the German Olympic Sports Confederation will be entertained there. (PA)

Pees don’t

Hikers in a US national park are being urged not to urinate along country trails to avoid attracting mountain goats that lick urine deposits for salt.

The advice is part of a plan to avoid aggressive goats like the one that gored a man to death in October at Olympic National Park in Washington state .

Campers are advised to urinate 200 feet away from trails to prevent the trails turning into “long, linear salt licks”. (PA)

Channel quake

An earthquake with a magnitude of 3.9 has struck in the middle of the English Channel, the British Geological Survey (BGS) has said.

Residents in parts of West Sussex reported buildings shaking for a few seconds but no injuries or damage has been reported.

The quake struck at 7.59 a.m., had a depth of 10 kilometres and its epicentre was around 85 kilometres south-east of Portsmouth, Hampshire, according to the BGS.

It was the largest earthquake in the area for almost 300 years. One worker said it felt like a “big lorry had gone by in a hurry”.

David Kerridge, from the BGS, said: “This is the largest earthquake in this area since a magnitude 4.5 event in 1734. Historically, there have been two other significant events nearby – a magnitude 5.0 earthquake in 1878 and a magnitude 4.3 earthquake in 1750.” (PA)