World At A Glance

Woman admits smothering eight of her 10 babiesNEW YORK: A 70-year-old woman who admitted smothering to death eight of her 10 babies was s...

Woman admits smothering eight of her 10 babies

NEW YORK: A 70-year-old woman who admitted smothering to death eight of her 10 babies was sentenced to five years home confinement and given 20 years probation, CNN reported. The Philadelphia woman, who maintained for decades that her babies died from sudden infant death syndrome, or cot death, will also receive mental health treatment, according to the news network. The treatment is intended in part to help researchers discover why some women kill their newborns. The woman killed the children over a period of 19 years. Her two other children died of natural causes.

Record sale for Sotheby8217;s

LONDON: A pastel painting on paper by impressionist Edgar Degas fetched a record 17.6 million pounds at elite auction house Sotheby8217;s 8220;most successful ever8221; sale. The auctioneers said on Monday that its 47-lot sale, which included works by artists including Claude Monet, Pierre Auguste Renoir and Pablo Picasso, raised some 50 million pounds. Degas8217;s 1879Danseuse Au Repos, depicting an exhausted ballerina massaging her foot, had been expected to sell for five million to seven million pounds, but went for nearly three times the previous record for a painting by the artist. The work, which was purchased by an anonymous telephone bidder, sold in under five minutes for a bid price of 16 million pounds before commission. Other works to far exceed their initial price tag included Henri Matisse8217;s vibrant Robe Jaune Et Robe Arlequin 8212; which sold for more than seven million pounds.

Female condoms being tested

PHNOM PENH: Cambodia8217;s health ministry is considering the widespread introduction of female condoms in a bid to empower sex workers dealing with drunken customers, a daily reported. The Cambodia daily said on Monday that femidom tests, with the backing of the UN and foreign health groups, were likely to start in Phnom Penh as part of an anti-AIDS initiative that encourages 100 per cent condom use. Prostitutes had complained around 70 percent of their clients arrive in Cambodia8217;s thousands of brothels under the influence of alcohol, apparently unable to roll on a condom, the paper said. Despite its potential however, a single such condom costs up to one dollar, while locally-made condoms cost just three cents each. By 2000 more than five per cent of Cambodia8217;s adult population is expected to be infected with HIV or AIDS.