Ex-California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger was fined €200 twice for puffing his cigar at two Austrian airports on a visit to his mother country in June, the daily Krone Zeitung reported.
The offences took place at Graz and Salzburg, the newspaper said.
The former Mister Universe and actor-turned politician may get away without paying the $280-dollar penalties as Austria and the United States have no cooperation agreement on these type of offences.
But the Krone Zeitung said Graz authorities have not given up hope and have sent the fines to the US embassy in Vienna with the aim of bringing the celebrity to account for contravening its smoking law. (AFP)
Six-year-old driver
A woman driver allowed her six-year-old niece to back her car out of a tight parking spot, wrecking two other cars in the process.
Rebecca Beatty, 55, from Pennsylvania was charged with driving offences after picking up her niece from school.
She apparently found another car parked so close that she could not get in her vehicle, so she got her niece back the car out. Police say the child hit a parked car, pushing it over a kerb until it hit another car parked on the street. (AP)
Bear garden woman
A woman who turned her rural Californian home into a spa for wild bears has escaped a jail sentence for illegally feeding them.
Lynne Gravier pleaded guilty but prosecutors agreed to drop the charge in three years if she agrees to stop her bear feeding. Ms Gravier said she was glad the case was over. The 77-year-old set out a paddling pool and bought tons of food to feed her guests with corn meal and peanut butter sandwiches. Neighbours complained that the bears killed livestock and broke into homes.
Last year, authorities found 15 black bears at Ms Gravier’s home. The filthy house was condemned, and she now lives elsewhere. (AP)
Moths trigger curfew
An invasion of Yellowtail moths that cause a form of dermatitis known as the Caripito itch has led the authorities in a region of French Guiana to impose a night time curfew.
The affected region is Sinnamary, located 110 kilometres west of the French overseas territory’s capital Cayenne.
Since the start of July, public lighting has been switched off at dusk, shops closed and residents told to stay indoors, in the dark and under mosquito nets, the authorities said.
The Yellowtail moth – Hylesia Metabus – is found mainly in mangrove swamps but they swarm to lights in nearby towns between 7 p.m. and 11 p.m. (AFP)
Winehouse sells!
A gang of drug traffickers is inserting pictures of late British singer Amy Winehouse in their bags of cocaine to improve sales, Brazilian police said.
The clear plastic bags carry a paper insert with a picture of the troubled 27-year-old singer, who died at her north London home on July 23. She is described in the insert as “Amy House.”
Bags of cocaine with Ms Winehouse’s picture were being sold at between 10 and 25 reals (about $6-16), said Lieutenant Colonel Glaucio Moreira, who led a police raid in the shanty town of Manginhos that made the find.
“Since there is so much information in the media that she was a drug user, the traffickers have taken advantage of this” to market their cocaine, Lieut Col Moreira told local media. (AFP)
History lesson
Workers cutting up a fallen tree at Gettysburg National Military Park in the US came across some Civil War artefacts when their chain saw struck bullets buried in the tree’s trunk.
The area was the site of intense fighting on July 2 and 3 in 1863.
Two sections of the tree’s trunk have been removed and will be added to the park’s museum collection. (PA)
Coloured toilet paper
Renova, one of Europe’s biggest producers of household paper products, has launched toilet paper in the colours of the Vatican flag in honour of Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to Spain next week.
Each pack contains two perfumed rolls of toilet paper, one yellow and the other white, which the company says on its online store can be used as giant streamers to welcome the 84-year-old pontiff to Madrid.
The 10,000 packs which the company has made cost €2.76 each and they feature a “I heart the Pope” logo that use a red heart symbol. (AFP)