A Chinese man has been reinstated as the world's tallest living male because a "taller" Ukrainian refuses to be measured, Guinness World Records said.
Bao Xi Shun, who stands 2.36 metres tall, had lost his title last year to Leonid Stadnyk, whose height was certified by a local doctor as 2.53 metres. But Guinness has changed its guidelines for the category and all pretenders to the title now have to be measured by an official adjudicator.
Mr Stadnyk had been crowned the tallest living human based on a statement from his doctor, but he has failed to respond to repeated requests from Guinness to officially measure him. Mr Bao, who has been measured by Guinness, will therefore regain his title when the 2009 book of records is published on September 17 this year.
Craig Glenday, editor-in-chief of Guinness World Records, said: "We are the global authority on world records and our obligation is to provide the public with the most accurate information possible. "According to our new guidelines, Leonid Stadnyk does not meet the criteria for the evidence required to support his claim, which is why we felt that it was only fair to rename (Bao) Xi Shun, whom we have measured in person.
"We still hope to hear from Stadnyk - and anyone else in the world for that matter - so we can travel to meet him and officially measure his height."
Japan to pay damages for sailor's suicide
The Japanese government will have to pay damages to the parents of a sailor who hanged himself after being repeatedly insulted by his superior, in the first such court ruling involving a civil servant, media said.
The Fukuoka High Court in southern Japan ordered 3.5 million yen (€21,660) be paid to the parents of the petty officer third class.
Kyodo news agency said the court recognised that the sailor's suicide had been caused by depression, a result of stress accumulated from insults such as: "You are not qualified as a petty officer third class" and "Are you dumb?".
The sailor had been 21 when he committed suicide aboard a destroyer in 1999, it said.
Oil company to open sports office
Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA will open a sports office to train athletes after a lacklustre Olympic performance, President Hugo Chavez said yesterday, expanding PDVSA social efforts that already range from food sales to road repairs.
PDVSA has become the financial engine of Mr Chavez's self-styled socialist revolution, financing and carrying out a broad array of social programmes that have made the leftist leader popular among the country's poor.
Mr Chavez for months touted Venezuela's Olympic delegation of more than 100 athletes, but the Opec nation won only a single bronze medal in the Beijing games.
Nuns to vie for Miss Sister Italy
The first beauty pageant for nuns debuts next month with the advent of Miss Sister Italy, aimed at erasing a stereotype of nuns as being old and sad, a newspaper reported.
"Nuns are above all women and beauty is a gift from God," priest Antonio Rungi of the southern Italian diocese of Modragone told the daily Corriere della Sera. "This contest will be a way to show there isn't just the beauty we see on television but also a more discrete charm," he added.
Nuns wishing to participate in the contest should send their picture to Fr Rungi, who will publish it on his blog. Internet surfers can then vote for their favourite nun online.
Blind man fined for drunk driving
A blind journalist was given a month's suspended jail sentence and fined €500 by a French court or driving while drunk and without a licence.The owner of the car, who was also drunk as he sat next to the blind man when he drove the vehicle, was given the same sentence and had his licence suspended for five months.
The pair were arrested on a country road by police who spotted their car zig-zagging suspiciously and moving at a very low speed.
The police were astounded when the 29-year-old driver informed them that he was blind, and when they breathalysed him and his passenger, a 52-year-old photo-grapher, they found they had drunk twice the permitted level of alcohol.