World briefs

A lawyer representing the terrorist known as Carlos the Jackal has urged Venezuela to demand that France return him to his homeland.

Isabelle Coutant-Peyre said Venezuela should press for the repatriation of Illich Ramirez Sanchez on the grounds that he was illegally detained in Sudan in 1994 before he was convicted in 2011 for instigating four bombings in France in 1982 and 1983 that killed 11 people and injured more than 140 others.

Venezuelan-born Ramirez has previously been convicted for a triple murder in 1975 and is serving two life sentences. In France Ramirez began an appeal against his life sentence for the bombings. The hearing began with him demanding a new lawyer. (AP)

Females’ office prank backfires

A British council boss has been suspended over allegations that she bit the backside of her only male colleague in an otherwise all-women department.

The bizarre incident is believed to be the culmination of a series of office pranks that spectacularly backfired. The man, in his early 20s, bled through his underwear and was later taken to hospital for a tetanus jab as a precaution.

Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council, in South Wales, is now carrying out an internal investigation into the incident. The authority has suspended the department manager, who has not been named but is in her 40s, pending the outcome. (PA)

Rules of the game?

British Police are investigating a complaint that a 10-year-old girl was told drawing a hopscotch grid on the pavement outside her Ramsgate home was criminal damage.

The girl’s father contacted the police after the incident which he said left his daughter Lilly-May frightened.

He said: “The policeman said to her that what she had done was criminal damage and she could be arrested. He then drove off. She didn’t come into the house for a while and didn’t tell us straight away because she thought I was going to tell her off for being naughty.” (PA)

Turtle goes for diver

A diver was left shell-shocked when he emerged from the water and discovered a “very aggressive” turtle attached to his upper leg.

The man had been diving in Cornwall when he found the freshwater turtle, known as a red-eared terrapin, on his limb. Red-eared terrapins are native to America and experts believe this one was an unwanted pet dumped in the water by its owner.

The diver contacted a veterinary surgery in Newquay, that cared for the terrapin before the town’s Blue Reed Aquarium offered it a permanent home. (AP)

UN wants more insects on menu

A United Nations food agency is pushing a new kind of diet for a hungry world. It ranks high in nutritional value and gets good grades for protecting the environment: edible insects.

The Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organisation hailed the likes of grasshoppers, ants and other members of the insect world as an underutilised food for people, livestock and pets.

A new report says two billion people worldwide already supplement their diets with insects. Insects are high in protein and minerals, need far less feed per kilo of mass than cattle do and produce far less greenhouse gas per kilo than pigs. (AP)

Transgender woman in wedding bliss

Hong Kong’s top court has granted a transgender woman the right to marry her boyfriend in a watershed ruling, which falls short of allowing same-sex marriage.

The surprise decision covers only the right of a transgender person who was born male to marry a man, and for one who was born female to marry a woman.

The ruling by the Court of Final Appeal brings the semi-autonomous Chinese city in line with many other places in the Asia-Pacific region, including mainland China, where transgender people are allowed to marry as their new gender. (PA)