Phone problem

Washington, Jan. 7 (Reuters): Motorists soon will have to holster their cell phones while driving in the US capital or face a fine under legislation approved yesterday by the district of Columbia City Council.

The measure, effective from July 1, would limit cellphone use by drivers to those who use “hands-free” devices or people making emergency calls; violators would be fined $100, local media reported.

Mayor Anthony Williams supports the measure and will sign it into law, The Washington Post reported, citing a mayoral spokesman.

Only New York has a state-wide prohibition against the use of hand-held cellphones while driving.

Recent highway safety research has found that cellphones, children, rubbernecking and adjusting the radio or CD player created distractions that contributed to accidents.

However, large surveys for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration last year found few drivers considered those activities potentially dangerous.

Super snake

Kendal, Indonesia (Reuters): It’s still a big snake, just not a record-breaker. When a recreation park in Indonesia put a huge reticulated python on show last week, keepers insisted to reporters it was 15 metres long. That made it the longest ever caught. But amid growing scepticism of the claim, a photographer working for Reuters returned to the Curugsewu park in the small central Java town of Kendal on Wednesday with a measuring tape. The snake’s true length — around 6.5 metres. “I have no idea why the snake has shrunk,” said one keeper when asked about the discrepancy, as the snake lounged on a tree branch inside its cage. According to the Guinness World Records, the longest discovered snake was also a reticulated python from Indonesia. It was 10 metres long when found in Sulawesi island in 1912. In 2002, Samantha, a snake measuring eight metres and which was dubbed the largest in captivity, died in the Bronx Zoo in New York. Samantha came from Indonesia’s side of Borneo island.