ROME: Some of the ashes of Italian poet Dante Alighieri which had been missing for 70 years have been found at the National Library in Florence, Italian television has reported. It said on Monday that employees discovered a bag containing part of the ashes on an obscure shelf during a reorganisation of the museum's manuscript department. The ashes had gone missing in 1929. Ashes of the Florentine author of the Divine Comedy, who lived from 1265 to 1321, had been presented to the library after being discovered in his coffin in Ravenna in 1865.

German charged for drunk driving of a lawnmower

FRANKFURT: A German man has been charged after being found drunk at the wheel of a lawnmower, police have said. Police said on Monday that they detained the 22 year-old man after neighbours complained that he was driving the lawnmower up and down their street in the middle of the night. He was too drunk to blow into an alcohol detecting machine so policetook him back to the station for a blood test. He has been charged with drunk driving and disturbing the peace and may lose his license.

Rio drivers can run red lights to avoid robbers

RIO DE JANEIRO: Rio de Janeiro officials have told drivers they can run red lights at night because of a rash of fatal carjackings and robberies at the city's stoplights. ``You won't be fined if you go through a red light from 10 pm to 5 am,'' said Rio traffic department spokesman Ivan Lima Alves on Monday. ``This is our way of dealing with the growing number of hold-ups at stoplights.'' Even violence-weary residents of the city were shocked by last weekend's attacks on sitting duck drivers, which left three dead and 13 injured. Running a red light usually means a fine of $100 and seven points on the driver's license, which is suspended at 20 points. Lima Alves said Rio's relaxation of regulations is compatible with the new traffic code, which says drivers should take whatever measures may be necessary to save theirlives.

Egyptian girls can't wear a full-face veil in school

CAIRO: A top court here has barred Egyptian schoolgirls from wearing a full-face veil, ending a five-year legal battle between Islamic fundamentalist lawyers and the education minister. The country's highest administrative court, the State Council on Sunday rejected a lower tribunal's decision to revoke a 1994 ban on the niqab by Education Minister Hussein Kamel Bahaa Eddine. The Education Minister's decision defining the characteristics of the school uniform was ``part of his prerogatives as an official for the organisation of the education system,'' the court was quoted as saying. ``This decision does not contradict the principle of freedom of religion set down in the constitution and does not undermine the right of schoolgirls to wear a simple veil,'' which covers the hair but not the face, the court said. Bahaa Eddine is considered one of the ministers most hostile to Islamic fundamentalists.

First Western Buddhist stupa comes upin Spain

GULINA: The first Buddhist stupa or reliquary dedicated to a Western master was inaugurated in Gulina near Pamplona in northern Spain, Buddhist sources have said. Tibetan Buddhist masters Jigme Rinpoche and Tonsang on Monday inaugurated the stupa which contains the ashes of Spaniard Jesus Juanotena who founded a Buddhist meditation centre in Gulina. Juanotena, who died 18 months ago, ``worked indefatigably to spread Buddhism in the West'', sources of the meditation centre said. Buddhism was ``developing'' in the West, where it was ``adapting to the Western way of being,'' Lama Rinpoche said.