World Vignettes — All-animal aliances

MOSCOW: Vodka lovers gathered in Moscow on Saturday for the first official competition to see who could best handle the national drink. It was not how much an imbiber could consume, but the flair and elan with which they drank. The first stage involved “free-style” drinking of 50 grams from shot glasses, the Itar-Tass news agency said. The second part called for knocking back two 50 gram shots, while making a brief toast. The last stage included snacks and featured finishing off a final 50 grams “for the road” while singing a song. The 25 contestants were judged on “technique and artistic presentation.

Author Alexander Kabakov, the chief judge, said the vodka-drinking event would probably never gain Olympic status because “Russians have no equals in the world.” After the contestants were checked for sobriety, the winners were announced: bank clerk Andrei Maisuk got the men’s medal and Natalia Perkova, a travel agent, was the winner of the women’s medal. Then, with a warning from the traffic officer not to drive home, the contest was over with losing competitors toasting the winners with — what else — a shot of vodka.

Royal remains?

MOSCOW: A six-member group of forensic experts have begun an examination of bones believed to belong to the family of the last Czar. A Russian news agency reported on Saturday that the bones are being examined in Yekaterinburg, the town in the Ural mountains 1,500 km east of Moscow where Czar Nicholas II and his family were executed by a Bolshevik firing squad in 1918. The examination is intended to end a long debate over the identity of the bones, which were found in 1991 in a pit near Yekaterinburg. They had been burned by acid.

DNA tests have already appeared to prove that the bones are those of Nicholas, his wife Alexandra and three of their children, as well as members of their household staff. But debate has continued, in part because of the apparent absence of two other children, the Czar’s haemophiliac heir Alexei and daughter Anastasia.

Tele-alter ego

LAGOS: The Nigerian government has launched a television set named after the military ruler, General Sani Abacha. It was launched on Saturday at the start of a weekend of ceremonies designed to celebrate the fourth anniversary of General Abacha coming to power. The ‘`Abacha TV set’ is a 20-inch colour model which comes in a box bearing General Abacha’s face. It was launched by his wife Myriam Abacha in a conference centre in the capital Abuja normally reserved for important state events. The businessman who produced the TV set, Alhaji Bawa Garba, said it was dedicated to the general as a mark of appreciation for his achievements since he came to power. Garba said he had invested almost half a million dollars in producing the set, which is expected to retail at 450 dollars.

Deluge of dollars

SYDNEY: A 39-year-old Sydney factory worker and mother of five has won 15.34 million dollars (11 million US dollars) in lottery, the biggest-ever Australian lotto jackpot. The woman, identified only as Jane, will quit her job as an assembly line worker this week. She confirmed her win on Saturday with New South Wales lottery officials. Jane was working the afternoon shift at the factory and was unaware of her win until she saw signs about the unclaimed prize outside her local news agency.

After rushing home to check her ticket, she then went back to the agency only to find it had shut for the day. But a trip to another nearby agency confirmed her win, which she declared was “too much for one person”. Her husband Phillip was stunned by the news. “I didn’t know what to do, I had goose bumps. I couldn’t drive properly. I was just frightened,” he said. They plan to pay off their 40,000 dollars in debts, buy two cars for a total of 60,000 dollars, spend a family holiday at Disneyland and in Greece, and buy a diamond ring worth five thousand dollars.