Man cut off finger to protest overdue wages
Reporting by Aleksandar VasovicBELGRADE (Reuters) - A Serbian union official who chopped off his finger and ate it in a protest over wages that in some cases have not been paid in years, said Monday he did it to show how desperate he and other workers were.
"We, the workers have nothing to eat, we had to seek some sort of alternative food and I gave them an example," Zoran Bulatovic told Reuters. "It hurt like hell."
Bulatovic, a union leader at the Raska Holding textile factory in Novi Pazar in southwest Serbia, used a hacksaw to cut off most of his left-hand little finger Friday.
Bulatovic said he decided to act after his deputy, "a single mother of three, was the first to say she would cut off her finger. I could not allow her to do that," he said.
State-owned Raska Holding was a major textile producer in the late 1980s with a workforce of 4,000. It suffered during the collapse of the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s and a loss of markets and mismanagement during a decade of wars and sanctions led to massive job cuts, leaving the company with just 100 workers.
Some employees have not been paid for years, only collecting social benefits, like free medical care.
About two dozen workers went on a 19-day hunger strike last year. They want the company's debt to be swapped for state-held equity and a welfare program for those nearing retirement.
Bulatovic said his comrades will not back down from their demands, but they will postpone planned self-mutilations at least until talks with government officials in Belgrade expected Tuesday.
Man shot 34 times in head with nail gun
Reporting by Rob Taylor
CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australian police released Friday a shocking x-ray photo showing the skull of a murdered Chinese immigrant shot 34 times in the head and neck with a high-power nail gun.
The body of Chen Liu, 27, was found by two children last year in marshland in south Sydney, wrapped in a carpet and bound with electrical wire.
Detectives said the weapon used was a standard gas nail gun widely available and used in construction, firing nails up to 85mm (3.3 inches) long.
"In 36 years, I've never seen a murder of this nature," Homicide Squad Superintendent Geoff Beresford told reporters.
Liu arrived in Australia in 2000 and was reported missing last year.
Faked kidnapping sparks massive police hunt
Reporting by Dave Graham
BERLIN (Reuters) - A lovesick Dutch woman who made up a story about being kidnapped sparked an eight-hour police hunt across Germany that ended with her capture by a special forces unit on a sealed-off motorway.
Worried relatives alerted Dutch police about the supposed abduction around midday on Thursday after the 35-year-old sent an SMS text message telling them two Eastern European men had taken her captive in her car, authorities said on Friday.
Reports soon came in that the woman's vehicle had entered Germany, where squad cars and police helicopters fanned out in a search which spread out over three federal states.
By evening, police in Bavaria had tracked down the black Seat to a traffic jam near Wuerzburg, and shut down the motorway. Just before 9.00 p.m. (1900 GMT), the special forces team stormed the car -- and found her alone inside.
"During questioning she said she was having a relationship crisis," a local police spokesman said, adding that the hunt had cost "tens of thousands of euros" in Bavaria alone. "People need to be aware of the costs of making up stories like this."
The woman, who has since been released, is now likely to face charges in the Netherlands for faking a crime, police said.
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