Presenter of BBC won't plead for calling British PM 'idiot'

Presenter of BBC won't plead for calling British PM 'idiot'

BBC television presenter Jeremy Clarkson said that he was sorry for having made fun of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's appearance but he would not apologise for calling him an "idiot".

Clarkson, known as the face of the BBC's top-rated "Top Gear" car show, had described Brown, who lost his sight in one eye in an accident suffered while playing rugby as a teenager, as a "one-eyed Scottish idiot" during a press conference in Sydney.

Clarkson was sharply criticised for the remarks by British politicians and the Royal National Institute of Blind People, and though he issued an apology on Friday, he told The Sun tabloid that he hadn't "apologised for calling him an idiot."

"I very specifically apologised for making fun of his personal appearance -- very specifically," he told the newspaper from his Sydney hotel.

"I have nothing against the Scottish and of course I regret making any remark that might have upset the disabled.

"But the idiot bit -- there is no chance I'll apologise for that."

Che Guavara's Hair Sold

Che Guavara's Hair Sold

A lock of hair taken from Che Guevara's body has sold for £58,000 at a US auction.
It sold to the only bidder, who runs a bookshop near Houston, for the reserve price, plus a buyer's premium.

The Dallas sale prompted protests from Che's widow and his supporters, reports the BBC.

The sale is not a first for Heritage Auction Galleries, which has previously sold locks from the heads of Abraham Lincoln, Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe.

Bill Butler, 61, placed his bid by telephone for the 3ins lock of Guevara's hair.

In the same lot were photographs of the dead revolutionary's body and fingerprints taken after he was shot in Bolivia in 1967.

Heritage Auction Galleries had tightened security for the sale, because of fears of protests from socialists unhappy that profits were being made from the revolutionary's death.

Guevara, an Argentine who became a Cuban guerrilla leader, was tracked down and killed in the Bolivian jungle by a group of CIA-backed Bolivian soldiers in 1967.

A former US intelligence officer, Gustavo Villoldo, who took part in the capture and execution, said he removed the lock of hair and took photos and fingerprints as proof that the mission was completed.