GLOBAL SNAPSHOT

Seagal under fire

LOS ANGELES: Australian actress Portia de Rossi is the latest woman to come out with sexual harassment allegations against Hollywood heavyweight Steven Seagal. The star took to Twitter to share one particularly disturbing casting experience she had with the Under Siege actor. She tweeted: “My final audition for a Steven Segal [sic] movie took place in his office. He told me how important it was to have chemistry off-screen as he sat me down and unzipped his leather pants.” Horrified, the actress says she ran out and called her agent who was not surprised by the claim.

Elvis papers sale

LONDON: Divorce papers signed by Elvis Presley and his former wife Priscilla are expected to fetch up to about $43,000 when they go up for auction. The papers, from August 15, 1972, have been signed three times by Elvis and four times by Priscilla as well as by their lawyers. Each of the 12 papers contains details of the divorce, which happened after the couple began living separately from February 1972. They specify how the couple were married in Las Vegas in 1967 and had one daughter, Lisa Presley, the following year.

Maternity leave

PARIS: A thief strolled out of a Paris art gallery with a bronze statue worth $850,000 under his arm. None of the security guards at the Bartoux gallery, which is on the Champs Elysees, noticed him taking Maternity by Colombian artist Fernando Botero, on Saturday, even though it is almost 60cm high But the thief was filmed on CCTV. A source said: “He walked around a few times ... and helped himself to the Botero. He then calmly made his way out of the building.”

Trouser snake

BERLIN: A young man detained by police during a drunken argument in Germany was found to be carrying a baby python in his pants, and may be in trouble under animal welfare laws. Police in Darmstadt said the 19year-old was detained on Tuesday night after a loud argument with another man disturbed residents. Officers noticed “a significant bulge in his trousers.” The man had a 35cm baby king python in his pants.

Homophobic law

CAIRO: Amnesty International has condemned a draft bill in the Egyptian parliament that would criminalise homosexuality, in what the rights group called an “unprecedented homophobic crackdown”. The bill lays jail terms of between one and three years for first-time offenders, whether the act takes place in public or a private place. Repeat offenders would receive five years in jail.