A Belgian teenager has told police how she emerged from a tattoo parlour with 56 stars over one side of her face, rather than the three she had asked for, prosecutors said yesterday.
"I said this part, the top, is ok, but not the rest," Kimberley Vlaeminck from the city of Kortrijk, 90 kilometres northwest of Brussels, told Belgian broadcaster VRT.
The 18-year-old said she fell asleep during the procedure, and woke up in pain when her nose was being tattooed. A spokesman for Kortrijk prosecutors' office said police were investigating after a complaint from the teenager.
The tattoo artist said Ms Vlaeminck had agreed to 56 stars. "She agreed, but when her father saw it, the trouble started," Belgian newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws quoted the man as saying. Ms Vlaeminck said she wanted to keep the tattoos on her forehead but would have the rest removed. (Reuters)
Wife beater must issue public apology
A woman judge in Turkey has ordered a wife beater to personally distribute 1,000 leaflets apologising for the act, the Turkish media reported yesterday.
Judge Aslihan Limon, 28, in the northern town of Arac served the ruling on Mustafa Kadinci who was accused of hitting his wife and then locking her up after a row.
The leaflet, which Mr Kadinci duly distributed, read: "I apologise to my wife and all the people of Arac for hitting my wife".
Judge Limon said in comments to the popular Milliyet newspaper that she had "received messages of congratulation from all over the country.
The verdict was given under a law on probation which came into force in 2005 as part of Turkey's efforts to join the European Union.
Since then, judges have used it to hand out sentences such as planting trees, reading books or caring for stray animals, to small-time offenders. (AFP)
Rome auctions off top cemetery lots
The price of dying is going up in Rome, if a city auction of prime cemetery lots is anything to go by. The most expensive burial ground in the city's prized Verano cemetery is on offer for €312,629 - the price of a modest apartment - before tax.
Like living real estate, the plot is described as being of "classical style, in brick and slate-roofed, with decorative elements in (white) travertine rock and Cararre marble, with a capacity of 10," according to brochures.
The tombs, one of which can hold up to 28 coffins, can be viewed via Google Earth with pictures placed on the website www.amaroma.it.
Future inhabitants will become neighbours of such luminaries as actor Marcello Mastroianni, writer Alberto Moravia or other cinematic figures in Roberto Rossellini and Luchino Visconti.
Rome mayor Gianni Alamanno hopes to raise €2.5 million from the sell-off of tombs whose owners are no longer known, are empty or are threatened with collapse, and offers a 75-year lease. (AFP)
Jobless man steals for free prison lunch
A jobless Taiwan man released from prison stole a box of cotton swabs just to get arrested again because he "could not forget the police department boxed lunches", officers and local media said yesterday.
The homeless man in Taipei first stole a pair of shoes on Sunday, was detained and released, The Liberty Times said. He then resorted to stealing again the next day just to get back inside and be fed for free.
"If someone's not doing well and comes in around meal time, we'll definitely prepare food," said an officer, surnamed Wang, at the Hsinyi District police station, which handled the case but again released the suspect, Tsou Hao-lan.
In another sign of the times on the recession-hit island, a man who had been without a job for four months stole a motor scooter and drove it to a Taipei-area police station, the paper said. (Reuters)
40 detained over exam cheating
Chinese police have detained 40 people in multiple cases of alleged high-tech cheating on the country's make-or-break university entrance exams, state media reported.
In north Shanxi province, six people were detained for allegedly selling receivers to students so they could be fed the correct answers during the June 7-9 tests, the Xinhua news agency said. The detainees included four students and one middle school teacher, according to the agency.
In northeastern Jilin province, a total of 34 suspects have been detained for trying to cheat during the exams, Xinhua said. It was not immediately clear if the suspects had been charged, or what the charges would be.
Ten million students sat for the highly competitive exams, which are considered crucial for Chinese families, as they can determine whether a student enters the country's educated elite or joins the general work force. (AFP)
Nova Scotia distiller wins whisky war
A nine-year legal battle over a wee word has finally come to an end. Nova Scotia's Glen Breton Whisky will keep its name after the Supreme Court of Canada refused to hear a final appeal by the Scotch Whisky Association, which has fought long and hard to keep the prefix "Glen" off labels of the single malt.
The Edinburgh-based association argued that the name could trick consumers into thinking that the whisky was a Scottish product since "Glen" is associated with many single malts distilled in Scotland, including Glenlivet and Glenfiddich. Scotch whisky is Scotland's largest export.
The association, which also insists that the word "Scotch" apply only to whisky made in Scotland, said it would still oppose the use of the Glen Breton label outside Canada.
"We will be continuing to monitor the marketing of this product to ensure that it doesn't cause consumer confusion and we will be opposing applications to register the mark in any country outside Canada were such confusion is likely," said the association's spokesman, David Williamson. (Reuters)