Drivers in Beijing and surrounding cities are using high-tech gadgetry to ensure that they can break speed restrictions with impunity. Frustrated police in the Chinese capital have reported a massive upsurge in the use of special licence plates, cost
ing anywhere from £115 to £250, in which the numbers are automatically switched every few seconds. The practice has reached epidemic proportions, say police, with over 50% of cars caught on camera for speeding covering up their plates or using fake plates.
Unable to prosecute drivers for moving too quickly, Beijing's policemen have instead been handing out fines for travelling too slowly. China opened the world's longest cross-sea bridge last week, with the 22.4 mile bridge across Hangzhou Bay aiming to cut the travel time between the booming port city of Ningbo and the financial hub of Shanghai from four to two hours. However, the view of the bay is so scenic that whole families have been crossing at a glacial pace. Since its opening on May 1, police have fined more than 300 drivers for driving too slowly or illegal parking on the emergency lanes while enjoying the ocean view and taking photos.
SWITZERLANDThe Swiss government has agreed to ease a ban on the importation of potatoes to the country following fears that fans attending Euro 2008 could face a shortage of chips next month. The country's department of agriculture said this week that the government would allow 5,000 tonnes of potatoes to be brought in after the Swiss potato industry association warned that supplies were running dangerously low in the build-up to the June tournament.
GERMANYKurt Beck's beard is, like the rest of his hair, short, grey and bristly. His wife Roswitha, a hairdresser, says he has "hair like a guinea pig." But now the head of Germany's Social Democrats, one of the country's most senior politicians and possibly Germany's next leader after next year's elections (pictured left), is considering shaving it off for charity. The SPD leader said in a discussion in Mainz that he might whip off his beard to raise ?1m (£790,000) for charity. "It must be serious and not turn into a spectacle," he said. "The event would have to help the really needy."
RUSSIAThieves have given up stealing the luxury cars lining Moscow's streets and have turned to a lucrative new way of making a fast buck: removing the dumper trucks, cranes and asphalt pavers used in the city's booming construction sector. In the past three months, 40 Russian-made Kamaz trucks and 13 cranes, cement-mixers and several other pieces of heavy machinery have gone walkabout from the capital's construction sites.
"Just recently an asphalt-paver was carried away in broad daylight, right off the street," said Igor Agapkin, head of the Moscow police's stolen-car investigation department.
A construction boom in Moscow and large cities across Russia is fuelling demand for construction equipment that cannot be met by domestic supply. Long-term projects make leasing expensive. Police said finding stolen items was "very rare".
"Theft of a crane, for example, is a difficult undertaking. They have to get past police posts, get to the 'chop-shop', completely change the vehicle's appearance, licence plates, repaint," said Agapkin.
BRAZILA Rio de Janeiro tour company could be in trouble for giving tourists too intimate a view of life in the city's notorious slums, including photo opportunities with drug gang leaders. The company, Private Tours, could be stripped of its licence after setting up meetings between traffickers and foreign tourists as part of a five-hour tour of Rocinha, the city's largest slum. In the visit to the "bocas de fumo", where traffickers sell drugs to Rio residents, the traffickers told the tourists stories about their time in prison, described the life of a Rio drug dealer, and would pose for pictures with their guns as long as their faces were covered.
OH, REALLYOrchids that mimic female wasps may not only waste the time of the male wasps they lure into spreading their pollen, they also seduce them into wasting valuable sperm, say Australian researchers. Meanwhile, the flowers benefit twice, getting help in their own reproduction and perhaps indirectly producing more male pollinators in the process. Some of the most exotic orchids are known to have evolved their convoluted shapes to attract insects, which unwittingly collect and transfer pollen as they
MOVERS & SHAKERSALEC BALDWIN
Following in a long tradition that stretches from Ronald Reagan through to Arnold Schwarzenegger and Clint Eastwood, Hollywood actor Alec Baldwin has decided to enter politics. The 50-year-old will today tell the 60 Minutes TV show that he is thinking about pursuing his longtime dream of becoming an elected official.
HEATH LEDGER
Even in death, the young Australian actor continues to captivate a nation. Earlier this week in Sydney, a recent portrait of the Brokeback Mountain star, who died aged 28 of an accidental overdose of prescription drugs in New York on January 22, was voted the most popular painting in Australia's top art prize for portraiture.
FOXY BROWN
Less than a month after being released from prison, US rapper Foxy Brown could be heading back for a further spell in the Big House after pleading guilty to menacing a woman with her BlackBerry phone.
Brown, 29, whose real name is Inga Marchand, pleaded guilty to a Naomi Campbell-style misdemeanour after she assaulted a neighbour who had complained about her loud music in July last year.
Her victim received a black eye and a loosened tooth for her troubles.
At the time of the assault, Brown was on probation for assaulting two nail salon stylists over a $20 manicure.
COMING UPA group of EU foreign ministers will travel to Georgia on Monday in a bid to ease tensions between the nation and Russia over the breakaway region of Abkhazia. Once a playground for the Soviet ruling elite, the Black Sea coastal territory and Georgian separatist region has been a source of conflict since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Georgian officials have warned that the risk of war is very close after Russia sent in more troops to patrol the area. Moscow claims it is reinforcing numbers in response to the risk of an attack by Georgia on Abkhazia.
