Spanish police yesterday said they are investigating the theft of €1.5 million in cash that was kept in plastic bags by nuns at a convent.
“The sisters called us on February 28 to say that several doors in the convent had been broken and that a large amount of cash had disappeared,” a police Press officer in the northern city of Zaragoza said.
She said the nuns kept the €1.5 million in cash in plastic bags. “The sisters said that it was money that they had saved over several years,” she said.
The sisters at the Santa Lucia convent in Zaragoza live largely in seclusion and spend much of their time working on book-binding, according to their website.
One of them sells paintings, which could partly explain the cash, the officer said. The regional newspaper Periodico de Aragon said the paintings by the nun, Isabel Guerra, are highly valued and can sell for up to €48,000. (AFP)
Tough justice
A judge in full robes and a wig rugby-tackled a sex offender to the ground to prevent him escaping from court, the Old Bailey heard.
Judge Douglas Marks Moore wrestled Paul Reid twice as he ran out of the judge’s door at London’s Woolwich Crown Court last August.
Mr Reid, 34, who escaped from another court two years before, made his desperate bid for freedom after giving evidence in his trial, jurors were told. The case continues. (PA)
Intruder calls police
A man who broke into a house phoned police to say he was worried the homeowner might have a gun.
The owner of the property in Portland, Oregon, was accompanied by his two German shepherds when he found the intruder and asked what he was doing in his home.
The stranger then locked himself in a bathroom and called the police. (PA)
Cabbie’s road rage
A New York cab driver ran down three of his passengers because they insisted on him making a journey that made little profit.
Furious at being forced to take them from Manhattan into the Bronx, he rammed them after they got out then drove off.
Mohammed Azam, 27, was later charged with assault and leaving the scene of an accident. (PA)
Rock sale
A New Zealand man whose home was smashed by a rock the size of a car in last month’s devastating Christchurch earthquake has sold the boulder in an online auction.
Phil Johnson said the 30-ton lump of stone, which he dubbed “Rocky”, rolled down from a hill above his house, broke through the garage roof and came to rest in his hallway.
The rock sold for more than 60,000 New Zealand dollars (€31,820), with proceeds donated to the Red Cross Earthquake Appeal. (PA)
Oppressed President
President Hamid Karzai joked yesterday that he was “oppressed” by his wife during a speech to mark International Women’s Day.
Mr Karzai was responding to a question from the female-dominated audience in Kabul asking why his wife Zenat – a gynaecologist with whom Mr Karzai has a four-year-old son, but who is rarely seen in public – was not with him.
“I am oppressed at home, you can ask,” he said. “The authority is hers. She had the choice to come or not. Had I forced her to come, that would not have been good.”
Elsewhere in his speech, President Karzai urged Afghan clerics and tribal elders to promote non-violence against women, which he said was in line with the principles of Islam and the Afghan constitution. (AFP)
Pope’s new scheme
Pope Benedict XVI is set to appear on Italian television on Good Friday in a new scheme giving viewers the chance to submit questions for the Pontiff, the Vatican said yesterday.
“It’s the first time that a Pope will answer questions from the audience on television,” said Il Corriere della Sera daily.
The curious will be able to post queries for the Pope on Rai television’s website from Sunday but the questions can only be about Jesus Christ, Vatican spokesman Fr Ciro Benedettini said.
Three questions will then be selected to be answered by the Pontiff during the programme.
The show will be recorded a couple of days before it goes on air, either in the Sistine Chapel or Benedict’s private apartment.
The project is being organised by the Italian Episcopal Conference, Fr Benedettini said.
Pope Benedict already holds the record for being the first pope to give television interviews. In 2005 and 2006 he granted interviews to German and Polish television stations at his summer residence Castel Gandolfo.
Pope Leo III was the first Pontiff ever to be filmed, in 1896. (AFP)
Pancake race
Aprons on and frying pans in hand, the womenfolk of Olney charged through the English town’s picturesque streets yesterday in the world’s oldest pancake race.
The quirky Shrove Tuesday tradition there dates back to 1445, when legend has it a stressed-out housewife heard the church bells and stormed through Olney’s streets, still cooking her pancakes, arriving just in time for the service.
Five and a half centuries on, the custom endures in Olney, a quaint market town on the River Great Ouse in Buckinghamshire, southeast England, and is celebrated on what is commonly known in Britain as “pancake day”.
In crisp spring sunshine, the women of the town lined up in the marketplace at exactly 11.55 a.m., frying pans in hand, aprons and headscarves on – and 379 metres of sheer exertion and pancake balancing ahead of them.
The 16 runners ranged in age from 29 to 61-year-old Deirdre Bethune. (AFP)