When the Saudi oil minister suffers from a fuel shortage...

When the Saudi oil minister suffers from a fuel shortage...

The Saudi oil minister, Sheikh Ahmad Zaki Yamani, spent his holiday in one of the luxurious villas on the island of Sardinia, in the resort area belonging to the Aga Khan. But an unpleasant mishap awaited him on the very first night of his stay in the resort. Sardinian nights are rather cool, and the heating in the villa was not working because of... a fuel shortage! Until the fuel supply was restored, Yamani learned firsthand the hardships of the energy crisis.

But the main problem in the Aga Khan’s domain is the fear of kidnappings. Quite a few millionaires have already been kidnapped there by underground militants and ordinary extortionists, and the resort prince has built a private army whose purpose is to protect his blue-blooded guests. Dozens of private detectives and Italian “carabinieri” were brought in to guard the Saudi sheikh. Thus it happened that a local municipal official who one morning entered Yamani’s villa grounds without prior notice in order to arrange some formal registration found himself in a very unpleasant situation, or, more precisely—he barely got out of there alive...

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The Iraqi embassy has run out of money

The Iraqi embassy in Paris suffered a blow: its coffers were emptied completely by its third secretary, who fled with sums of money [illegible] of Belgium. [illegible] and payments on behalf of the country’s embassy were not honored. [illegible] this was not a case of a robber with an underground network or a terrorist organization.

To compound the matter, and add a tragic dimension, there was also the tragic fact that the Parisian girlfriend of the fugitive secretary, a teacher by profession, was questioned at length by the police, and shortly afterward simply fell from the fourth floor of the home of his diplomat friend, Shtram, and was killed on the spot.

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The mystery of the “Red Billionaire”

The mystery surrounding the death of the Jewish billionaire David Carr continues to be a matter of interest.

The sixty-year-old billionaire had also spent some time in Israel, where he was involved in construction companies. But his fame and fortune did not come from Israeli bricks, but from his dealings with the Soviet Union. Carr was the central businessman who mediated between Western companies and the Soviet Union, and as such rumors often circulated about him that he was nothing but a mysterious intelligence agent. One day, the man’s body was found in his apartment on Avenue Foch, in the sixteenth arrondissement. An autopsy (not final, they say) determined that death was caused by a heart attack. “The Daily,” an obscure weekly, revealed that a mysterious and beautiful Dutchwoman, a former German journalist, who had been married to him for a year and was in the midst of divorce proceedings, said, “The KGB activated my husband because he knew too much.” Indeed, eyewitnesses say that Carr returned, a few days before his death, from his last visit to Moscow in rather low spirits.

Carr was close to members of the Kennedy family, and deeply involved in the affairs of the Democratic Party in the United States. President Lyndon Johnson even gave him a signed photograph of himself. A representative of the Kennedy household, Sargent Shriver, was seen in Paris shortly after news of Carr’s death became known. He did not, however, attend the very secret funeral, held in the presence of a rabbi, the widow, and about a dozen close associates, among them the closest relatives of... Père Lachaise.

The man was buried, but the affair was not. Those who know, say that only the tip of the iceberg has yet come to light about the acquaintances of the “Red Billionaire.”

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Neighbors against street theatre

[illegible] is today Paris’s main tourist attraction, it is [illegible] in the [illegible] district. [illegible] street performers [illegible] a drum troupe [illegible] a genuine Peruvian street theatre, in which even a man, mice, pigeons, and many other performers appear.

The problem is that the area’s residents are not at all enthused by the constant performances, and they succeeded in getting the municipality to stop the shows every evening at seven o’clock.

Only one man, among the performers at the “Beaubourg plaza,” is fighting the arbitrary order. John Gaze is a comic actor who likes to “activate” the audience. He lets them act out, for example, “Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf,” and pushes the performance and text in completely unexpected directions. Gaze argues that his business only takes off in the evening and, in any case, street theatre is a serious matter. Molière, too, once performed outdoors and in the evenings. Gaze diligently collects the reports the police issue him every evening, in order to turn them into a petition, which several thousand people have already signed. Will these help him win the war of attrition between art lovers and those who love their peace and quiet?

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A funny name—but temporary

The Belgian Interior Ministry has recently issued a regulation that shows understanding toward all those people who, heaven forbid, bear a name that regularly provokes unpleasant waves of ridicule.

From now on, all those with funny or embarrassing names who can prove that they indeed suffer distress as a result will be entitled to change their name or add another name, to “disguise” their current one. The price is quite modest, roughly equivalent to four hundred Israeli pounds.

Such a modest price could certainly turn this into a popular weekend pastime, and we should not be surprised if many Belgians take the opportunity in their free time to change their names to something more respectable.

Nudists and sharks on the French coast

The especially hot summer is drawing the French in droves to the seaside, where they are discovering two phenomena not entirely to their liking: nudists and sharks.

As for the nudists, this is somewhat surprising. After all, at the “Deligny” swimming pool on the Seine in Paris, not to mention the Riviera, the girls sunbathe topless, if not with even less on. But it turns out that on the Atlantic coast the authorities are much more puritanical. Not to mention the respectable bourgeoisie, who descend in droves for a traditional holiday and find themselves shocked.

In one resort town, the mayor declared outright war on the nudists and created a “fist commando” that makes raids on devotees of natural tanning and gives them a thorough beating.

As for the sharks, the situation is much less ambiguous. All the bathers abandoned the Gironde coast on the Atlantic Ocean after learning that the bodies of two pilots who perished there in a plane crash over the sea had been eaten, quite literally, by sharks. Since the incident, tourism officials and scientists have launched an information campaign, explaining that there is no reason to panic in the manner of “Jaws.” The “blue-skinned shark” in question is, in fact, a peace-loving creature that does not prey on human beings.

For now, not many are willing simply to trust the confused shark, and they are fleeing to safer beaches.

Woody Allen lets off steam

Whenever the well-known Jewish-American comedian Woody Allen is too tense, he decides to pop over to Paris and unwind. This week he was here with his friend Ann Daniels, a producer at the “NBC” television network, and they even went shopping at a supermarket.

Having a companion along is essential for the depressed Woody. On his previous “mood visit” to Paris in May, he arrived alone and did not leave his hotel room for three days. He then flew home without even stopping in Cannes, where the premiere of his film “Manhattan” was being shown.

Ann Daniels at least managed to drag him to a shop...