WORLD

In Brief

Autobahn Picnic

BERLIN (AP) — Germany’s autobahns are renowned for average speeds well in excess of 80 miles (130 kilometers) an hour. But the average dropped near zero Sunday as tens of thousands of people sat at a 37-mile table for a cultural celebration titled, appropriately enough, “Still Life.”

Cars were strictly verboten.

“Attention on the A40,” a radio traffic report warned. “There is a 60-kilometer closure between Duisburg and Dortmund due to the longest table in the world.”

A festival spokesman said an estimated 3 million people turned out amid fine weather, one million of them with their bicycles, to celebrate on the highway between Dortmund and Bochum, in western Germany. Tens of thousands sat at the table, which was made up of 20,000 individual tables, spokesman Oliver Haenig said.

$4 Bln For Spill

LONDON (AP) — Oil company BP says that the cost of dealing with the Gulf of Mexico spill has now reached nearly $4 billion.

The company, which last week managed to place a temporary cap on the leak, said Monday it has made payments totaling $207 million to settle individual claims for damages from the spill along the southern coast of the United States.

To date, almost 116,000 claims have been submitted and more than 67,500 payments have been made, totaling $207 million.

Including the cost of the spill response, containment, relief well drilling, grants to the Gulf states, payment of claims and U.S. government costs, BP says it has now spent $3.95 billion.

The company adds that it is still too early to quantify the eventual total cost.

Journalist Shot Dead

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — A Greek journalist was gunned down Monday outside his home in Athens, in an attack broadly condemned by political parties.

Sokratis Giolias, 37, died after being shot more than 15 times before dawn in the capital’s eastern neighborhood of Ilioupoli, police said.

Giolias headed private Athens radio station Thema FM and wrote on a popular online news blog, Troktiko, which often deals with scandals.

The blog said two or three gunmen were believed to have shot Giolias, who was married with a young child. Police said they also believe more than one gunman was involved.

Pride in Poland

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Thousands of gay men and lesbians from around Europe marched through Poland’s capital Saturday to demand equal rights and more tolerance in this heavily Roman Catholic nation.

The parade, part of the EuroPride gay rights festival, is meant to give a boost to the fledgling gay rights movement in Poland. Gay rights were strongly repressed during the communist era, and gays and lesbians have struggled since communism fell 20 years ago for acceptance in a society still strongly influenced by the church.

“We feel like they are 20 years behind the Netherlands,” said Ad Bakker, a 39-year-old from Holland who traveled to Warsaw to show solidarity with Polish friends. “But the atmosphere is good and we hope that EuroPride will help.”

A Polish friend of his, Sebastian Blaszczyk, 36, said the situation in Poland “gets better and better every year,” but the country still has far to go in accepting gays.

Swan Two Three...

LONDON (AP) — An entourage of royal boatmen has set out on stretches of the River Thames in England to begin this year’s count of the waterway’s swan population — an annual practice dating back to medieval times.

Monday marks the start of the five-day “Swan Upping.” The ceremonial census aims to provide an updated count of the number of young cygnets and ensure the swan population is maintained.

Britain’s monarch has claimed ownership rights to all mute swans on the country’s waterways since the 12th century. The graceful birds were often served as a delicacy at royal banquets, and today, the swans are counted — but no longer eaten.

David Barber, the Queen’s Swan Marker, said many swans died in the past year from the cold weather and attacks by youths.

PNG Quakes

SYDNEY (AFP) — Papua New Guinea was hit by two strong earthquakes around 30 minutes apart on Sunday, geologists said, though no tsunami warning was issued.

A 7.3-magnitude quake hit at 11:35 p.m. local time around 105 kilometers east of Kandrian on New Britain island, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) said, at a depth of 58 kilometers.

USGS initially gave the magnitude of this quake as 6.8.

Around half an hour earlier, USGS recorded a 6.9-magnitude quake 110 kilometers east of Kandrian, at a depth of 58 kilometers.

Climb Ev’ry Mountain

VIENNA (AFP) — At the age of 63, former U.S. president Bill Clinton says he has one more mountain to climb before he dies — and that’s Kilimanjaro, the highest peak in Africa.

Clinton revealed the secret goal — along with his dream of running a marathon — while in reflective mood at the 18th International AIDS Conference, where he made the keynote speech on Monday.

He explained that one of his favorite movies was “The Bucket List,” a 2007 film in which two terminally ill men, played by Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson, draw up a list of things they wish to do before they die, and then travel around the world to do just that.

“I’ll soon be 64, so I think I’m old enough to join Jack and Morgan in making a bucket list,” said Clinton.

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