World Vignettes

The man, whose name was not released, has lived in a plastic-foam shack in Oslo since 1978. He claims that avoiding soap and living in a shack helps him achieve a deeper understanding of astrophysics, the newspaper said. He has repeatedly challenged the University’s ruling in court but lost every time. Now his attorney wants to take the matter to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. “We are pointing out several regulations … including the right to a private life and the right to an education,” attorney John Christian Elden was quoted as telling the newspaper.

Two-seathearse

JAKARTA: An Indonesian village schoolteacher helped a hard-up friend by collecting his dead father from hospital — and giving him a 150-kilometre pillion ride on his Ojek (motorcycle taxi), a newspaper report has said. The Jakarta post said on Monday that the teacher and part-time taxi driver Wahab Daulima, from Marisa, north Sulawesi, overcame his distaste at the idea of a dead body clinging to his back in his desire to help his friend and volunteered to bring the body home tied to the back of the motorcycle in the dead of night. Wahab was greeted as a hero by the entire village. The report did not say whether the corpse had worn a helmet.

Mother of all Bills

PORT OF SPAIN: It is being described in some quarters as merely catching up with the rest of the civilised world, but in others it is being hailed as something which will change the lives of women in this twin-island republic. The Maternity Protection bill promises to give every woman employed in the public andprivate sectors, casual, part-time or full-time — the right to 13 weeks maternity leave with pay when it takes effect. It will protect women from dismissal on the ground of pregnancy and will also ensure her right to return to work, on the same terms and conditions, after giving birth. Should a woman’s circumstances after birth require her to take more leave, the legislation being proposed takes care of that too. She may postpone her return to work for a further 12 weeks, but without pay.

Furthermore, maternity leave “shall not deprive an employee of her right to her vacation or sick leave,’ the bill says. In piloting the bill in the Senate recently, Minister of Labour Harry Partap said maternity benefits should be a “legal right rather than a negotiated concession… provided at the whim and fancy of an employer.”

Jazz great dead

VERMONT: Renowned jazz guitarist Attilla Zoller, who produced innovative recordings and worked with famed band leaders such as Herbie Mann, has died. He was70. Zoller, who had been suffering from colon cancer, died on Sunday at a hospital in the northeastern state of Vermont. Despite his failing health, Zoller was performing and recording until this month.

Zoller was born in Hungary, where he performed with jazz groups before escaping to Vienna in 1948. Later, he moved to Frankfurt, Germany, where he toured and recorded with both his own group and visiting American musicians.

In 1959, he moved to the United States. In 1972, he started the Vermont Jazz Centre, whose workshops became a magnet for both aspiring and seasoned jazz musicians. Zoller worked with jazz greats Lee Konitz, Paul Bley, Herbie Hancock, Sonny Rollins, and Astrid Gilberto. He was recognised with a Lifetime Achievement award from the New England Foundation for the Arts in 1995. April 14 is now officially Attila Zoller Day in New Hyde Park, and the guitar museum has created the Attila Zoller Award, which it will present each year.