Toy cars made of cocaine seized in Italy
Milan: Italian police Wednesday seized tiny toy cars made entirely of cocaine in a Milan bust that yielded 140 kg of the drug.
The cocaine was also absorbed into clothing and hidden inside large rubber balls. Sixteen people, mostly Peruvians, were arrested in the operation.
The suspects were part of an international drug trafficking network, police said. Police also shut down the laboratory where the cocaine was re-converted into powder form. (IANS)
Two fined in Islamabad for littering
Islamabad: A man was fined here for throwing a used tissue paper while another was fined for dropping a disposal plate from a car under an anti-littering law in this Pakistani capital. Ayub Khan and Ahmed Ali were among the first persons to be fined under the law, reported Dawn. Mohammad Faiz, an official, said they have begun imposing fines on the violators from Tuesday and within two days six people had been penalised.
Islamabad is the first city in Pakistan where the anti-littering law had been introduced. The minimum fine for littering is Rs.50. (IANS)
Four die in 50-vehicle pile-up in Chile
Santiago: At least four people died and 20 were injured in a 50-vehicle pile-up on the highway linking this Chile capital with its busiest seaport, police said.
Low visibility due to fog and the burning of nearby cropland was blamed for the accident, which involved buses, trucks and private cars and occurred near Casablanca, a town in Valparaiso province some 80 km from Santiago.
A total of 51 vehicles – including 23 trucks and 11 buses – were involved in the collision Wednesday on the Autopista del Sur, which links Santiago and the San Antonio port, said Guillermo de la Maza, an official.
“It’s too early to talk about a final number of fatalities,” Health Minister Jaime Manalich said at the accident site. (IANS)
British police officer banned over dead dogs
London: A police animal handler in Britain who left two dogs in his car in a summer heatwave that led to their death has been banned from keeping dogs for three years.
Sergeant Ian Craven left a five-month-old puppy and a bomb detection dog locked in his vehicle outside a police dog training centre in Kent as he went for a meeting at the Olympic site in east London in June. By the time he alerted colleagues to the animals’ desperate plight six hours later, the two dogs were beyond help despite being rushed to an emergency vet, the Daily Express reported.
Outside temperatures had soared to 84F (29C) on one of the hottest days of the year. Alsatian puppy Tilly and Chay, a Belgian malinois, would have suffered an agonising ordeal as the heat inside the locked van climbed to fatal temperatures.
A police officer for 30 years, Craven resigned from the Metropolitan police following the incident. He pleaded guilty to causing unnecessary suffering.
Colleagues described how he started panicking and exclaimed “I’ve killed my dogs”, when he recalled how he had left the two. (IANS)
World’s most expensive model car
London: A model car that holds the title for the most expensive and precious model car in the world is set to fetch more than 3million pounds when it goes under the hammer later this year.
The Lamborghini toy, which has been crafted by German model maker Robert Gulpen, costs 12 times more than the real Lamborghini and is made of 24-carat gold, platinum and carbon.
Gulpen said on his website that he wanted to create a tribute to the legend of the automobile. There are diamonds studded into the seats, headlights and the steering wheel.
This exclusive replica of the Lamborghini Aventador is just one-eight the size of the original and it took 500 hours to create it.
A 1/1000mm thin thread of solid gold has been wrapped around the carbon fibre, and the tyre rims have been cast from solid gold and platinum as has the entire interior. (ANI)