World Briefs

Filipino fashion designer Herbert Chavez dresses like the “Man of Steel” as he stands among his huge collection of Superman mannequins, dolls and other paraphernalia at his home in Calamba, south of Manila, yesterday.

The 35-year-old fan underwent extensive cosmetic surgery in a bizarre attempt to transform himself into his comic book hero.

He also had silicone injections for fuller lips, and thigh implants to achieve a more muscular look, the report said. “I decided to look like Superman because since I was a kid, I want to be like him, and I know that having a look like Superman will make me happy and contented as long as I don’t hurt anyone,” a message posted earlier this week read. (AFP)

Poker cheats nabbed

Police in the French resort city of Cannes have arrested three Italians and a Frenchman using invisible ink to cheat at poker in a local casino, law enforcement sources said yesterday.

The four were detained on Tuesday at the Les Princes casino after pocketing €30,000 ($41,200) in winnings, the sources said.

The Frenchman, a casino employee, made sure the three Italian players were dealt hands from a deck marked in invisible ink, which the players could see by wearing special contact lenses, police said.

Investigators said they suspected other casinos on the French Riviera may have fallen victim to the scam, which is well known in casinos in the United States but new to France. (AFP)

Torches herself

A depressed French maths teacher set herself on fire in a high school playground yesterday, officials said, but she is expected to survive after pupils and fellow teachers rushed to her aid.

The 44-year-old doused herself in petrol during the morning break and set herself alight, one day after a stormy meeting with children in her class who found her teaching methods too strict, witnesses said.

“She should pull through,” said state prosecutor Patrick Mathe, who added that the woman was suffering from depression and was seen as having tried to commit suicide. “It was a desperate act... there was no crime.” The teacher suffered third-degree burns in the incident at the Jean Moulin secondary school in Beziers, southern France, and was taken by helicopter to a specialist unit in the city of Montpellier’s university teaching hospital. (AFP)

Boy ’s arm torn off

An investigation has begun after a toddler had his arm torn off by a washing machine.

It is believed three-year-old Lewis Lightfoot lost the limb when he opened the door of the machine, which kept running instead of coming to an automatic stop.

Before the accident, he had been helping his mother Rachel, 24, fill the machine with clothes at their home in Crewe, Cheshire.

The mother-of-four was in her living room when she heard her son screaming hysterically.

She found Lewis covered in blood with his left arm detached and inside the washing machine. (PA)

‘Holy Smoke’

Want to go into the afterlife with a bang? Or just make it technologically easy for visitors to your gravestone to learn more about you? Some innovative US entrepreneurs can help.

Since July, Holy Smoke, founded by a couple of game wardens in Stockton, Alabama, has offered a unique service: stuffing cremation ashes into pistol bullets or shotgun cartridges.

Thad Holmes, 56, and Clem Parnell, 58, came up with the idea while talking about funerals. “You know, I’ve thought about this for some time and I want to be cremated,” Mr Parnell explained on the business partners’ website, myholysmoke.com. (AFP)

Blog hacked

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff’s official blog website was hacked briefly yesterday by someone who posted an anti-corruption message, officials said.

A Presidential official said the intrusion occurred between 1:30 and 5:30 am before technicians were able to restore the site.

The hacker, who posted the identity of @DonR4UL or “beleza (cool) hacker,” inserted a photo of protesters sweeping with brooms, an allusion to the fight against rampant corruption in the South American nation, local media said. (AFP)

Sweden bomb scares

Two suspicious packages delivered to Swedish government buildings triggered bomb scares Thursday, police said, amid reports one may have been a gift from Uruguay’s visiting President.

Police were alerted to a suspicious letter or package at the Rosenbad building, which houses Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt’s offices. (AFP)

Emergency landing

A plane bound for China’s restive northwestern Xinjiang region was forced into an emergency landing yesterday after a passenger claimed there was a bomb on board, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

Police detained the 27-year-old woman passenger after she threatened to detonate a bomb during the China United Airlines flight from Beijing to Xinjiang’s capital Urumqi, Xinhua reported. (AFP)