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29 March 2024

Crazy World: Tycoon punches rival on live TV

Published
By AP

Media magnate punches TV debate rival 

RUSSIA: A Russian billionaire Alexander Lebedev, owner of two leading British newspapers, punched a man in the face during a television debate on the financial crisis.

A clip posted on the NTV television channel's website shows Lebedev, a former KGB agent who has made a fortune in banking, landed a right jab to the face of ex-real estate baron Sergei Polonsky.

Lebedev knocked Polonsky off his chair, and threw another punch as Polonsky tumbled off the back of the studio's elevated platform, but the second punch failed to connect.

Just before Lebedev pounced, Polonsky told the other guests he wanted to "stick one in the mouth".

On his blog, Lebedev justified the assault by saying Polonsky had behaved in an aggressive, threatening manner throughout the debate.

"In a critical situation, there is no choice. I see no reason to be hit with the first shot. I neutralised him," the owner of Britain's Independent and Evening Standard newspapers said.

Lebedev also co-owns liberal Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta with ex-Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.

Polonsky, who used to head the Mirax Group real estate firm, got up quickly and did not appear injured, but later published online pictures of a cut on his arm and his torn trousers.

Polonsky's business nosedived after the onset of the 2008 global financial crisis, forcing him to abandon work on Muscow's Federation Tower, which he hoped would become the tallest building in Europe.

 

Son, nephew human magnets

SERBIA: Two small boys from a central Serbian town are able to attract metal objects, acting much like human magnets, according to their mother.

It's a claim that is raising doubts among some experts.

Sanja Petrovic, the mother of 4-year-old David, said it first came to her attention "about a month ago."

"I asked him to fetch me a spoon so I cold-feed his little brother, and he yelled back: 'Mom, it sticks!'" Petrovic recalled. "I found him with several spoons and forks hanging from his body."

Terrified, the 26-year-old woman, who lives in the town of Gornji Milanovac, phoned her sister, who discovered that her son, Luka, 6, has the same attraction. "Other kids in the family can't do this, just the two of them," Petrovic said.

The phenomenon is rare and so far medically unexplained.

Several similar cases, however, have recently been reported in the media in Serbia, and also in Croatia and Bosnia.

"As far as I know, there is no medical or scientific explanation," radiologist Mihajlo Dodic, who runs a practice in the Serbian capital, Belgrade, said.

Other experts questioned whether the boys actually have any special abilities.

"I doubt very much that someone is magnetic," said Patrick Regan, a physics professor at the University of Surrey in Britain. "Humans are made of the wrong material to be magnetic. Humans are mostly water and water does not have any magnetic properties." 

 

Teenager emerges from woods after five years

BERLIN:  Berlin police are investigating the story of an English-speaking teenager who appeared in the German capital last week saying he had lived the previous five years in the woods with his father, a spokesman said today.
 
Michael Maass said the approximately 17-year-old boy appeared on September 5 at Berlin's city hall and was then taken in by a youth emergency center.
 
The boy told authorities that after his mother had died in a car accident about five years ago, his father had taken him to live in the forest, Maass said. The two lived in a tent, and in earthen dugouts according to his story.
 
"He said that he had lived for the last five years wandering around with his father," Maass said. "We don't know where."

 
The boy, who says he doesn't remember where the family came from, claims he followed his compass north after his father recently died following a fall in the woods, hitting Berlin after walking two weeks, Maass said.
 
The boy told authorities he only remembered the name his father called him by, Ray, according to media reports, and not his last name, Maass said. He speaks fluent English and only a few words of German, Maass said. He did not have any information about what accent the boy has.
 
The boy appears to be in good health and police have issued a Europe-wide appeal to try and determine his identity.
 
However, police said they were not immediately releasing any photos of the boy.
 
"The missing person's bureau is investigating," Maass said, noting that at the moment, they only had the boy's story to go on.