World Briefs

It appears age has finally caught up with Rolling Stone Keith Richards.

The legendary hellraiser is understood to have undergone laser treatment on his eyes before Christmas which means Mr Richards will not have to wear glasses.

The 68-year-old guitarist is in remarkably good health given his reputation for rock and roll excess. He has survived years of drug-taking, kicking a heroin habit in 1978 and eventually stopping cocaine after an accident in 2006 when he fell out of a tree, requiring brain surgery and a metal plate in his skull.

The guitarist, who once claimed to have snorted his dead father’s ashes in a line of cocaine, has said, “... I’m not putting death on the agenda.I don’t want to see my old friend Lucifer just yet. He’s the guy I’m gonna see, isn’t it? I’m not going to the other place, let’s face it.”

Robbers shoot father, baby

More police are being deployed in Rome after robbers shot dead a man and his eight-month-old daughter outside their home.

Officers in the Italian capital said the killings happened on Wednesday night when robbers confronted a Chinese immigrant, his wife and daughter, and demanded receipts from the family’s business. When the father refused, the robbers stabbed and wounded the wife, and fired gunshots which pierced the child’s skull and struck the father’s heart.

Last year, Rome was alarmed by several bold street gun murders, apparently carried out by suspected mobsters.

Arkansas dead birds mystery

Blackbirds have fallen dead from the sky in Beebe, Arkansas, for the second New Year’s Eve in a row.

Television station KATV showed a radar image of a large mass over Beebe a few hours before midnight. The Little Rock station reported that hundreds of birds had died.

Beebe animal control worker Hearst Taylor told KATV that the reason for the bird deaths is not known yet.

Satnav summit wrong turns

A UK government summit is being held to thrash out the problems that satellite navigators can cause.

The summit, to be held in early March, will be hosted by Local Transport Minister Norman Baker who said he wants to see an end to the misery caused when lorry and car drivers follow out-of-date directions from their satnavs.

Mr Baker also wants highway authorities, mapping providers and satnav manufacturers to work more closely with each other to ensure everything possible is done to make sure the right vehicles are on the right roads.