Bar on Barbra

Rome, May 28 (AP): Barbra Streisand has cancelled her concert in Rome next month, organisers said, in a move that followed protests by Italian consumer groups angered by excessively high ticket prices.

Concert organisers indicated that the decision was not connected to the outcry, saying that production delays had forced them to scrap the June 15 concert in the capital’s Stadio Flaminio. Last week, consumer groups protested as “absurd and shameful” ticket prices ranging from just under $200 to more than $1,200.

Thief chase

Washington (Reuters): A US Congressman chased and caught a man who picked the lawmaker’s pocket on Thursday night in Washington’s Georgetown neighbourhood, a local television station reported. Representative Rodney Frelinghuysen was walking in the area when a group of young men came up behind him. Frelinghuysen felt someone grab at his wallet and when he turned, the would-be robber took off. Frelinghuysen, 61, gave chase and caught the suspect a short distance away.

Bullet ache

Beijing (Reuters): A Chinese woman’s 64-year-old headache has ended after doctors removed a bullet that relatives said lodged in her skull when Japanese soldiers shot her during World War II, state media reported on Monday. Jin Guangying, now 77, lost consciousness after a Japanese patrol in Jiangsu province fired on her in 1943 as she went to meet her grandfather, a guerrilla fighter, the Beijing News said. “When she came to, her head was wrapped in a bandage and she never realised there was a bullet lodged deep in her head,” the paper said. Jin’s family had thought her symptoms were due to a tumour.

Hotel ban

Melbourne (Reuters): An Australian hotel catering to homosexuals has won the right to ban heterosexuals from its bars so as to provide a safe and comfortable venue for gay men. In what is believed to be a first for Australia, the Victorian state civil and administrative tribunal ruled last week that the Peel Hotel in Melbourne could exclude patrons based on their sexuality. Australia’s equal opportunity laws prevent people being discriminated against based on race, religion or sexuality. But Peel Hotel owner Tom McFeely said the ruling was necessary to provide gay men with a non-threatening atmosphere.