Hair like Beckham

London, May 20 (Reuters): A British schoolboy has been expelled for wearing his hair like soccer star David Beckham, the Times newspaper reported today.

Style icon Beckham’s new hairdo — super-tight braided “cornrows” running down his skull — has been a tabloid and television obsession since he unveiled it last week.

The style is popular among Caribbean Blacks in Britain, but rarely seen on White men like the Manchester United footballer.

The Times said Savio Roman Catholic High School near Liverpool was not at all amused to see a pupil imitating it, and banned him. The boy’s father, Don Jamieson, told the paper he would fight the expulsion of his son.

“There are plenty of girls at the school who have braids, but the head teacher told me it was inappropriate for a White boy. That is ridiculous and I will not put up with it,” he said.

The newspaper also quoted a hairdresser who warned that blond hair may be too fine to keep in ultra-tight cornrows without breaking the follicles, and that White men who wear the style could risk going prematurely bald.

Beauty flight

Panama City (Reuters): Doubts over whether Venezuela, famed for its beauty show winners, could afford to enter this year’s Miss Universe contest were resolved on Monday when the organisers announced that Miss Venezuela would take part after all. The main sponsor of Miss Venezuela, private television channel Venevision, said last week it could not obtain the hard currency needed to send beauty queen Mariangel Ruiz to the contest in Panama, blaming tight foreign exchange controls imposed by the Caracas government to stem capital flight. But the president of the Miss Universe Organisation, Paula Shugart, said in a statement that brown-haired Ruiz would compete in the contest next month. She did not explain how the issue had been resolved, but in a separate news release Venevision expressed thanks to Panamanian President Mireya Moscoso.

Baby blues

London (Reuters): Instead of landing instructions, aircraft approaching Britain’s Luton airport heard the squealing of tiny infant Freya Spratley broadcast over their radios. Authorities worked 12 hours to track the frequency and determined that a baby monitor at mother Lisa Spratley’s house, located near the airport, was broadcasting her baby’s cries to the cockpits of approaching planes, the BBC said. “It was like something out of the Ghostbusters. They came down the path and stopped me and said we’d like to check something inside the house,” Lisa Spratley said. Freya seemed to have little idea of the commotion she had caused.