World Briefs

One of the oldest known copies of the Koran went on show at the British Museum yesterday ahead of a new exhibition.

The Koran, lent by the British Library, will be part of the exhibition, Hajj: Journey To The Heart Of Islam, the first major collection dedicated to the Hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia. The Koran states it is a sacred duty for Muslims who are able to make the journey to Mecca to do so at least once in their lives.

The copy of the Koran on exhibition is thought to date from the 8th century BC, according to the British Museum.

Bomb hoax for errant husband

A US woman called in a bomb threat to an airline to stop her husband flying from Los Angeles to Atlanta to see another woman.

Johnna Woolfolk, 50, has pleaded guilty to making a bomb threat after calling AirTran Airways to report that her husband was carrying a bomb onto a flight.

“We had a fight and I called the airline and reported that he had a bomb to stop him from taking that flight to see another woman,” Ms Woolfolk said in court.

FBI officers stopped the man at the airport and questioned him, and he missed the flight.

Woman auctions tattoo space

A cash-strapped New Zealander is auctioning off the chance to put a tattoo on her derriere so she can pay her bills.

Wellington woman Tina Beznec, 23, says she needs the money after being made redundant twice in the past year. So she set up an online auction under the title Your Tattoo on my Bum and within 24 hours bidding had reached NZ$10,250 ($8,135). “You might think I am crazy for doing this! But yes, the winner of the auction gets anything they like tattooed on my bum!” Ms Beznec said in her auction notice.

The tattoo would be 9x9 centimetres, it could be on either cheek and could be something personal or “a business promotion”, she said.

‘Demonic’ name is accepted

A court in France yesterday rejected a prosecutors’ request for a couple to be barred from naming their son Daemon after a character in TV series The Vampire Diaries.

The parents, both fans of the series, had chosen to name their son, born on November 3, after the vampire character Damon.

They said they simply liked the sound of the name.

Father-in-law embarrasses British PM

British Prime Minister David Cameron faced embarrassment on Thursday after his father-in-law blasted the government’s decision to approve a new high-speed rail line.

Viscount William Astor, stepfather of Mr Cameron’s wife Samantha, said the new £32.7 billion (€39.4 billion) HS2 line from London to Birmingham in central England risked “ruining the lives of thousands”.

In an article for The Spectator magazine, he said the plan was backed largely by “northern (opposition) Labour MPs who relish the thought of the beauty of the Chilterns being destroyed”.