World briefs

Up to 35 women may have been drugged and raped by a London taxi driver, police said yesterday.

Thirty women have come forward after a man was arrested last Friday in southeast London on suspicion of rape.

Police were initially investigating five attacks in which victims were picked up in a black cab near Oxford Street, King's Road or London Bridge. The suspect is accused of attacking his passengers after offering them spiked glasses of champagne which he said were to help him celebrate a lottery win.

The most recent reported attack took place on February 5 after a 33-year-old woman was picked up near London Bridge Station.

"Every case is being linked," a Scotland Yard spokesman said.

Record charts go to the dogs

It's a doggone chartbuster - a song audible only to dogs has topped New Zealand record charts, and is looking to go global.

A Very Silent Night, recorded at a frequency only dogs can hear, was so popular among owners it hit No. 1 at Christmas, but has been receiving mixed responses from listeners.

"The most violent one was a dog that physically attacked the radio when it was played and went quite beserk and totally destroyed it," said Bob Kerridge, chief executive officer of animal welfare group, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA).

"On the other side of the scale, they just lie down and did nothing." The charity CD, priced at NZ$4.99 (€2.69), contained an instrumental and a vocal version of the song, but Mr Kerridge said he did not know what kind of music dogs would hear.

Weds in 'dingo' car

The brother of an Australian baby girl, believed taken by a dingo almost 30 years ago in a case turned into a Hollywood film, has married in a ceremony which used the family car once tested for traces of her blood.

Azaria Chamberlain disappeared 28 years ago on a family camping holiday to Ayers Rock, now known as Uluru. Her mother Lindy was jailed on murder charges and later freed, despite saying the nine-week-old was taken by a native dog.

Azaria's brother Aidan, 34, aged just six when his sister vanished in 1980, was chauffeured from his wedding ceremony in the car forensically-tested for the baby's blood. No blood was found and the Australian-build sedan now has the licence plate 4ENSIC.

The story of the disappearance was made into a movie starring Meryl Streep, called A Cry in the Dark.

Sailors plucked from trimaran

Helicopters rescued 10 sailors from a French trimaran that overturned off the east coast of New Zealand yesterday.

Three aircraft winched the sailors from the Groupama III after it capsized about 150 kilometres off the coast of the South Island and took them to the city of Dunedin.

"All are uninjured and were all dressed in survival gear when they were picked up from the yacht's hull," the New Zealand Rescue Coordination Centre said in a statement. The crew were given medical checks before being released.

The yacht was taking part in the Jules Verne Round the World Yacht Race when it overturned in three-metre swells and winds of about 30 knots, forcing the crew onto the upturned hull.

Haitians free kidnapped men

Two kidnapped workmen from the Dominican Republic were freed unharmed by Haitians as authorities tried to calm tensions along the northwest border with Haiti after a series of cattle thefts.

Dominican officials said the two abducted men were turned over to them late on Sunday at the Fort Liberte border crossing after negotiations with Haitian police.

The two were dredging sand in the Massacre River, which separates the Dominican Republic and Haiti, when armed Haitians abducted them on Saturday near the community of Dajabon, 280 kilometres northwest of Santo Domingo.

Dominican authorities said the abduction was in retaliation for a raid by about 50 armed Dominican cattle farmers who had crossed into Haiti on Friday to claim cows and horses they alleged had been stolen from them.

Milk, chicken seized from clinic

Shoppers in oil-rich Venezuela often can't find basic food items in stores but the government of President Hugo Chavez has turned up a huge stash of milk and chicken in a private health clinic.

Inspectors from the consumer protection agency Indecu found the shelves of the upscale Caracas Policlinica Metropolitana stocked with half a tonne of milk and a similar amount of chicken.

Indecu coordinator Jesus Benavides told reporters the products had been illegally diverted from a chain of state-run subsidised grocery stores, which sell primarily to poor Venezuelans who form Mr Chavez's support base.

The clinic will face fines for violating an anti-hoarding law Mr Chavez passed last year and a possible criminal investigation, Mr Benavides said.