Electro-pop pioneers Pet Shop Boys have turned down a request from animal rights group Peta Europe to adopt a more creature-friendly name.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals suggested Neil Tennant (right) and Chris Lowe (left) rename themselves Rescue Shelter Boys to draw attention to the plight of animals raised in pet shops.
"Dear Neil and Chris, You have many loyal fans of the Pet Shop Boys here at Peta. Will you please consider changing your name from the Pet Shop Boys to the Rescue Shelter Boys?" pleaded a letter to the group from Yvonne Taylor, Peta's special projects manager.
"By agreeing to change your name to the Rescue Shelter Boys, you would help raise awareness about the cruelty involved in the pet trade ..."
The pair, whose hits include West End Girls, It's a Sin and Suburbia, declined the request, claiming they were "unable to agree", but said it "raises an issue worth thinking about". (AFP)
Karate expert kills two over lice
A Russian karate expert has been charged with beating to death a 61-year-old woman and her son, whom he accused of infecting his wife with lice, an investigator said yesterday.
The drunk 26-year-old burst into a neighbouring room in his hostel on Tuesday and used karate moves to kill the pair.
"He literally beat them to death with his hands and feet," state investigator Eduard Abdullin said. "The family were poor and drank a lot. He blamed them for infecting his wife and the entire corridor with lice."
The 58-year-old husband of the dead woman was also badly beaten, but survived.
The suspect, who studied karate for seven years, faces life in prison if convicted. (Reuters)
Bullet in head for 12 years
An Albanian woman went around for 12 years with a bullet lodged below her cheekbone without her noticing it, the woman said yesterday.
Mrike Rrucaj said she was shot in her sleep in 1997 at a time when the Balkan country was plagued by anarchy and chaos amid protests against fraudulent pyramid schemes, but a doctor said the bullet had passed through her. At the time many Albanians fired bullets into the air in frustration.
"I was covered in blood and I thought I had been killed," Ms Rrucaj said of the incident in 1997. "The doctor at the hospital said the bullet had gone in and come out and he just cleaned the wound. I was 28, and did not feel a thing for 12 years."
But one week ago she collapsed from pain when she bent her neck and an X-ray revealed the bullet, which was 2.8 centimetres long.
"The unique thing about this case is not the operation, but the fact she kept it unknowingly for 12 years in her head," said Fatos Olldashi, chief neurosurgeon at Albania's military hospital. (Reuters)
Divorces wife by text message
A Saudi man has divorced his wife by text message, a newspaper said on Thursday.
The man was in Iraq when he sent the SMS informing her she was no longer his spouse. He followed up with a telephone call to two of his relatives, the daily Arab News reported.
A court in the Red Sea city of Jeddah finalised the split - the first known divorce in Saudi Arabia by text message - after summoning the two relatives to check they had received word of the husband's intention, the paper said.
Saudi Arabia practises a strict form of Islamic Sharia law, and clerics preside over Sharia courts as judges. Under the law a man can divorce his wife by saying "I divorce you" three times. (Reuters)
Woman aims for chilli record
An Indian woman is hoping to enter the record books as the world's "hottest" woman after munching 51 fiery chillies in two minutes, organisers of the feat said yesterday.
Anandita Dutta Tamuly, 26, chewed her way through the chillies before an audience on Thursday. She consumed the chillies in the company of British celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay, in Jorhat, 300 kilometres east of Assam's main city of Guwahati.
"In two minutes, Anandita gobbled 51 red-hot chillies without batting an eyelid or shedding a tear, and also smeared seeds of 25 chillies into her eyes in one minute," a chef who organised the show, said.
The chillies are a staple of local diet in Assam. They are recognised by Guinness World Records as the world's hottest chilli pepper.
Ms Tamuly said she became hooked on hot peppers when she was five years old.
"I had a sore tongue and my mother applied a chilli paste to cure the infection. After that I developed a penchant for chillies," Ms Tamuly said. (AFP)