Man escapes jail over attack on 96-year-old

Stephen Gordon,

LONDON (Reuters) - A man who punched a 96-year-old war veteran, leaving him blind in one eye, during an unprovoked attack on a tram in south London, escaped jail on Monday.

Stephen Gordon, 44, a paranoid schizophrenic, was sentenced to a three-year supervision order at Croydon Crown Court after the judge ruled that treatment rather than jail would be "in the best interests of the public in the future".

The incident occurred after Gordon tried to push past the elderly man, who requires two walking sticks and was standing in the aisle of a busy tram travelling near Croydon on December 14 last year.

As he did so, Gordon's hat was brushed off his head. He retaliated by calling the elderly man a "bastard" and then punched him in the face.

He was arrested in January this year after the incident was captured on CCTV and found guilty at trial of causing grievous bodily harm.

"This was a particularly nasty attack on an elderly man who was obviously very frail and was physically not able to defend himself," said Detective Constable Darren Stenning of British Transport Police.

"The blow to the victim's head caused serious injury, which has resulted in the victim losing sight in one eye. And unfortunately since this assault, the victim's health has deteriorated and he now resides in a residential care home."

Football robots don't quite have Becks appeal

TOKYO - David Beckham doesn't have anything to fear from robot players -- for now. At an indoor field in Tokyo, dozens of robots played football while others danced to samba music to cheer them on.

For the contestants, most of the movements were, well, mechanical and even a little clumsy -- far from the acrobatic grace of premier-league football stars.

Several small humanoid robots taking part in "Robot Athletic Meet 2007" toppled over as they collided on the indoor field, their every move buzzing with the sound of their motors.

In most cases, the robots -- some remote-controlled by their owners and others pre-programmed to respond to the ball's movements -- were able to pick themselves up and carry on with the match.

Ken Senoh, chief organiser of the event, said robots might soon surpass humans with their physical prowess.

"Today's robots are still toddlers, so to speak, in terms of their physical capabilities," said Senoh, a professor of advanced science and technology at the University of Tokyo.

"But it's only a matter of time that they will catch up with humans and eventually outrun us -- just in the same way personal computers, which were slow and not up to par until just a few decades ago, can now perform various tasks much faster than humans."

Dozens of "AIBO" robot dogs made by Sony also took part in the event, playing soccer and dancing to samba music dressed in colourful samurai and bikini costumes.

Some of their doting owners, however, preferred to have their AIBOs watch, not play.

Kidnapped dog found days after shootout

BOGOTA - A kidnapped Colombian dog held for $350,000 (170,600 pound) ransom was recovered on Friday after his abductors dropped him off at a veterinarian's office, saying he needed a bath.

When no one came to pick up the German shepherd after it was washed, the office called police who said they identified the canine as Aldo de Fescol, snatched last month from his home in a rich Bogota neighbourhood while his owners were away.

No ransom was paid, police said.

Aldo was in healthy condition but two of his kidnappers were wounded in a Tuesday shootout with police who ambushed them at a fake meeting staged to pay the extortion money.

The abductors tried to pressure the family by sending a proof of life video with a note saying, "This is how your dog cries at night."

Kidnapping for ransom is big business in this Andean country, where drug-running leftist rebels have been fighting the government for four decades. More than 3,000 Colombians are currently held captive, most by the guerrillas.

Depardieu imposter fools hotel staff in Rome

ROME - A look-alike pretending to be French actor Gerard Depardieu walked into a luxury hotel in Rome and walked out with a gift basket weighed down with freebies, local media reports said Friday.

Depardieu is scheduled to come to the RomaCinemaFest, which got under way Thursday, to promote his film "La Abbuffata" -- in which he plays himself.

Police said Friday that the Depardieu doppelganger looked and sounded enough like the real thing that staff members at the Hotel de Russie allowed him into the gift suite, where he reportedly took a purse, a bikini, a pair of sunglasses, a cashmere sweater and a designer bra. The error was discovered a short time later, but by then the look-alike was long gone.

"We're on the lookout for someone who looks like Gerard Depardieu but who is not Gerard Depardieu," a spokesman for the Rome-based Carabinieri police said Friday.

The actor has not yet arrived in Rome, and festival officials said that when he did arrive he would have his own chance to take a few gifts from the suite.

The festival concluded October 27.

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