A top-rated French chess player had to concede a game at a major tournament when he dozed off during a match after reportedly showing up drunk, local media said yesterday.
Russian-born Vladislav Tkachiev was declared "lost on time" on Thursday after officials at the Kolkata Open Grandmasters found he was unable to continue his game and had to be carried off, the Indian Express said.
"What happened is unfortunate," tournament co-organiser Soumen Majumder told the paper. "It's in bad taste. Once the event is over, we will hold a meeting and decide how to proceed against this player."
Mr Tkachiev, 35, completed only 15 moves against India's Praveen Kumar in his third-round game lasting over an hour. "Each time he fell asleep, players around would try to wake him up with a shake of the shoulder," the paper reported alongside photos showing Mr Tkachiev with his head resting on the table.
"Some even offered him water and Tkachiev, having briefly refreshed himself at the change-room while his opponent waited, dozed off again and eventually had to be carried off." (AFP)
McDonald's vs McCurry
An eight-year legal battle between fast food giant McDonald's and a Malaysian restaurant called McCurry over copyright infringement is set to continue on Monday in the country's highest court.
McDonald's, which has 185 outlets in Malaysia, is appealing against the decision made on April 29 that its trademark had not been infringed upon by the local restaurant, which has one outlet in the Southeast Asian country's capital of Kuala Lumpur.
McCurry serves Malaysian staples such as fish head curry and is short for "Malaysian Chicken Curry", according to the company website (www.mccurryrecipe.com).
"The whole issue is about the name of my restaurant on the signboard," McCurry owner, P. Suppiah said yesterday.
Monday's hearing in the federal court will determine if the case goes to another trial. (Reuters)
Frog in Pepsi can - it's the real thing
A Florida man who cracked open an ice cold can of Pepsi "indeed" found dismembered remains of a frog, the US Food and Drug Administration said.
"It has been verified, and it was indeed a frog," Charles Watson, a spokesman at the US food inspection authority, told AFP from Florida, noting that the animal had been identified by an FDA lab.
Fred DeNegri of Ormond Beach told CNN television that he was taken aback by the "disgusting" blob he was not expecting in his drink.
Mr DeNegri purchased the soda at a Sam's Club wholesale grocer, CNN said.
The FDA has launched an investigation into how the incident occurred. (AFP)
Police ruin legal cannabis experiment
Dutch police were left red-faced after swooping on what they thought was an illegal cannabis farm only to partly dismantle a scientific experiment, the University that owns the plants said.
"More than half the plants were destroyed," Simon Vink, spokesman for the University of Wageningen said. The plants were part of a legal experiment on the suitability of cannabis fibres for the production of textiles, paper and synthetic materials, he said.
"The project had been under way for years and was in its final phase, which would have allowed us to introduced these new fibres to the market.
"We will probably suffer big losses; we are busy doing the calculations".
Police had earlier announced having discovered about 47,000 cannabis plants with an estimated street value of €4.4 million.
In fact, said Dr Vink, the plants were unfit for cannabis production due to an extremely low content of THC, the psycho-active ingredient for soft drug use. (AFP)
Moscow mayor would banish snow
The fabled beauty of the Kremlin's golden onion domes dusted with winter snow may be a thing of the past under a scheme by the Moscow mayor, reported by Russian newspapers, to banish snow from the capital.
"Why don't we keep this snow outside the Moscow city limits?" the Izvestia and Gazeta dailies quoted Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, who has a well-established track record of micro-managing Moscow's weather, as saying this week.
"For the countryside, this means more moisture and bigger harvests. And for us - less snow," Mr Luzhkov said, recalling that Moscow already relies on special cloud-seeding techniques to guarantee clear skies on key holidays.
Under Mr Luzhkov's proposal, the skies would be cleared whenever snow-laden clouds - a regular and natural feature of the Moscow winter cityscape - approached the sprawling Russian metropolis.
Cloud-sweeping operations over Moscow, however, often produce heavy precipitation in outlying areas, and experts said the plan was fraught with unpredictable consequences. (AFP)
No street names for Mr President
Name a university after me, a school, a scientific institute or even a science foundation; but leave my name off the towns and streets of our country, President Nursultan Nazarbayev told Kazakh scientists yesterday .
The 69-year-old has run the Central Asian state for 20 years and enjoys sweeping powers. His critics accuse him of usurping power in the oil-producing former Soviet nation and trying to stifle dissent, charges he denies.
Unlike some colleagues in the region, however, Mr Nazarbayev has so far declined to have cities and streets named after him - a popular practice for leaders of the Soviet era.
Yesterday, Mr Nazarbayev said he had changed his mind with regards to educational and scientific institutions. (Reuters)