An Indian state has told newly-wedded women to avoid talking too much on their mobile phones for the first two years of marriage.
The Punjab State Commission for Women (PSCW) issued an official advisory last week urging brides “to focus on their domestic life instead of having long conversations on mobile phones”.
Commission head Gurdev Kaur Sangha said yesterday that the advice was designed to avoid suspicion between new couples as they adjust to their new life together.
Ms Sangha, 70, from Chandigarh, the state capital of Punjab said she had seen a rise in complaints from women about domestic violence, sexual harassment and family discord due to arguments over brides being constantly on the phone. (AFP)
Lower fuel prices
UK motorists received some respite yesterday when two supermarket chains announced cuts in fuel prices.
First Morrisons said it would be reducing petrol by 1p a litre and diesel by up to 3p a litre from today.
Then Asda announced it was knocking 1p a litre off petrol and 4p off diesel – also from today.
Morrisons petrol director Mark Todd said: “Wholesale fuel prices are coming down and at Morrisons we always want to pass on savings as soon as we can.” (PA)
Unholy row
Pope Benedict XVI was rowed across Venice’s spectacular Grand Canal in a gondola on Sunday, with his four “gondoliers” fighting off fierce competition for the honour.
The days leading up to the 84-year-old Pope’s visit were fraught ones for the gondolier community, with one rower even invoking a vision of Catholic saint Padre Pio in his bid for a coveted spot on the gondola.
Aldo Reato, head of the gondoliers eventually chose two rival pairs out of Venice’s 425 gondoliers to restore peace, rejecting the possibility of using the only woman gondolier.
Bruno and Francesco Dei Rossi are brothers whose father Albino rowed late Pope John Paul II during his visit in 1985.
The other pair, Gianpaolo D’Este and Igor Vignotto, are two famous participants in the Venice regattas.
“It’s been two days that I haven’t managed to sleep. It’s a huge responsability,” Bruno Dei Rossi told reporters ahead of the crossing. (AFP)
Civic pride
A mayor in Texas is retiring at the age of 94, after being the only person to hold the office in nearly 40 years.
Olive Stephens won her first election to Shady Shores town council in 1962, two years after the town was formed, and was elected mayor in 1972.During her time she ordered the construction of both of the town halls that have served the settlement. (PA)
Dedicated delegate
A delegate to a union annual conference is cycling 840 miles to the meeting to raise money for charity as well as campaigning against job losses.
Mark Chapman is getting on his bike to travel from Peterhead in Scotland to Brighton, where the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) will hold its national gathering on May 18.
Mr Chapman, who works for HM Revenue and Customs, aims to raise money for the union’s hardship fund, the MS Society and a charity set up in memory of a friend who died of cancer. (PA)
Pot luck
A 250-year-old Chinese vase owned by a US couple for more than 50 years has sold at auction for more than $1.5 million (£916,000).
A Chinese antiques dealer from Shanghai, outbid a British dealer for the vase, known as a Chinese moon flask.
The large, bulbous porcelain vase dates to China’s Qinlong dynasty, between 1736 and 1795 but the couple, from Clarence, Buffalo had no idea of its value until they decided to sell it. (PA)
Dateline change
Samoa has announced it will switch timezones so it falls to the west of the international dateline, bringing the Pacific country’s clocks closer to major trading partners in Australasia.
Samoa currently sits to the east of the dateline – which runs through the middle of the Pacific – meaning that it is 11 hours behind GMT and is one of the last places on Earth to see out the day.
Under the change, to be introduced on December 29 this year, it will be among the first of the world’s countries to greet the dawn, with timezones closely aligned to Australia and New Zealand.
Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi said the change would reverse a decision made almost 120 years ago to move to the east of the international dateline because most of Samoa’s trade at the time was with the United States and Europe. (AFP)