A statue of Michael Jackson dangling his baby son out of a hotel window has been erected in Britain, sparking anger yesterday from die-hard fans of the late pop icon.
The life-sized sculpture, entitled Madonna and Child, depicts the notorious incident when the singer held his youngest son Prince Michael II out of the window in Berlin in 2002 in front of hundreds of shocked fans.
Fans of Jackson, who died in June 2009, were swift to condemn the work by Swedish-born artist Maria von Kohler, which is mounted in a window at The Premises Studios, a music studio in east London.
“Michael Jackson fans get angry because this is the kind of thing they have to deal with day in and day out – the slams, the lies, the tabloid mentality,” said one comment on the studio’s website by a fan called Paul. (AFP)
Pie in face
A renowned Belgian prankster posted footage yesterday showing the leader of Belgium’s Roman Catholic Church Andre-Joseph Leonard being hit four times by custard pies.
Posted on YouTube by practical joker The Glooper, who has already successfully targeted French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Microsoft founder Bill Gates, the clip was filmed during a speaking engagement at the Catholic University of Louvain-la-Neuve, near Brussels.
Footage shows a stunned Bishop Leonard’s face and black coat covered in a white foam-like product.
It is the second time the archbishop has been targeted. (AFP)
Access denied
Georgian police arrested a 75-year-old woman who single-handedly cut off internet connections in Georgia and neighbouring Armenia, the interior ministry in Tbilisi said yesterday.
The pensioner was digging for scrap metal when she hacked into a fibre-optic cable which runs through Georgia to Armenia, forcing many thousands of internet users in both countries offline for several hours on March 28.
The woman who was arrested in Ksani, north of Tbilisi, has been charged with damaging property and could face up to three years in prison.
Many Georgians’ internet connections were also briefly cut in 2009 by another scavenger who damaged the fibre-optic cable while hunting for scrap metal. (AFP)
Proto-eyes
In a major advance toward regenerative medicine, researchers have for the first time coaxed stem cells from a mammal into becoming an embryonic eye, according to a study released yesterday.
The results, published in Nature, show that growing a complex human organ inside a petri dish – while still a long way off – is no longer the stuff of science fiction.
They also point the way to new treatments for diseases that rob people of sight, and even the possibility of one day restoring vision with transplanted retinas generated from a patient’s own stem cells. (AFP)
Whisky recreated
A charity that recovered a cache of whisky abandoned in Antarctica more than 100 years ago is set to reap a windfall after a Scottish distillery painstakingly recreated the historic tipple.
The Mackinlay’s scotch belonged to British explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton’s 1907-08 Antarctic expedition and was left beneath a hut on the frozen continent after his attempt to reach the South Pole failed. The Antarctic Heritage Trust found the whisky in 2006 and shipped a crate containing 11 bottles to New Zealand last year. The wooden crate, was frozen solid but the whisky in the bottles was still liquid.
After the crate was thawed out, Whyte and Mackay, which owns the Mackinlay’s brand, flew three bottles to its Scottish distillery, where it was analysed by master blender Richard Paterson. The recipe for the original scotch had been lost but Mr Peterson blended a range of malts to recreate it for a limited edition run of 50,000 bottles costing £100 each. (AFP)
Furious women
Furious Indonesian women fought off a mob of armed Islamists after the religious fanatics tried to evict a mother and her newborn baby from a house.
Dozens of angry housewives forced the Islamists to flee for safety and attacked their leader’s vehicle during the incident near Medan, northern Sumatra.
The melee erupted when the women rushed to the defence of their neighbour, Nurhayati, and her two-week-old baby.
A group of about 12 stick-wielding men from the Islamic Defenders Front – a notoriously violent vigilante group that is tolerated by the authorities – had attacked her house over a land dispute. (AFP)
Odd haul
A mutant three-clawed crab has been hauled up in a fisherman’s lobster pot.
The sea monster, which has an extra set of pincers growing from beneath its shell, was caught off the coast of Northumberland. (PA)