Quirky World ... Tourist mistakes Richard Gere for homeless beggar

USA: A French tourist listened to her heart when she offered her pizza to a man spotted rummaging through rubbish in the streets of New York, not realising it was Hollywood star Richard Gere making a movie-

Karine Valnais Gombeau, a 42-year-old Parisian, spotted the actor, a knit cap pulled down over his ears, sifting through rubbish as she came out of a pizzeria near Grand Central station in Manhattan, with her husband and 15-year-old son, the New York Post reported.

Without blinking, Gere, 64, asked her what was in the bag Gombeau offered him. “I tried to tell him in English, but it came out half in French,” she told the newspaper.

“I said: ‘Je suis désolée [I am sorry], but the pizza is cold.’ ”

“He said: ‘Thank you so much. God bless you,’ ” said Gombeau.

She left without knowing it was Gere making his new movie, Time Out of Mind, until the Post ran a photo of the moment two days later.

“It was magical... It’s crazy, this story. It’s unimaginable that something like this could happen,” she said, adding that she thought Gere, the star of Pretty Woman and Chicago, was “very handsome, even at his age”.

ENGLAND: Scout, Boo Radley, and Atticus Finch are finally reaching the pixelated screen. To Kill A Mockingbird will be made available as an e-book and digital audiobook in July, filling one of the biggest gaps in the electronic library.

Author Harper Lee, 88, said in a rare statement issued through Harper Collins Publishers that while she still favoured “dusty” books, she had signed on to make the book available to a “new generation”.

Published in 1960, the novel has sold more than 30m copies worldwide and still sells over 1m a year.

SPAIN: A team searching for the grave of Miguel de Cervantes, Spain’s greatest writer, is starting exploratory work. He died broke in Madrid, his body riddled with bullets, and his burial place was a tiny convent church.

No more was heard of the 16th century author until the rediscovery of a novel featuring an eccentric character called Don Quixote rescued him from oblivion. But by then, nobody could remember where his grave was.

Now a three-phase search will take place over some 200sq m at the Convent of the Barefoot Trinitarians in Madrid’s historic Barrio de las Letras — or Literary Quarter.

URUGUAY: Uruguayans will be able buy up to 10 grammes of pot a week, enough to roll 20 joints, under new rules governing the recently legalised marijuana trade in the country, a government source said.

The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity because president Jose Mujica has not yet decreed the new regulations, said the government will auction up to six licenses to produce cannabis legally.

Mujica is expected to sign off on the rules in coming days. He proposed the landmark legalisation law to undermine drug trafficking.

Uruguay, the first country to legalise the growing and sale of marijuana, is being closely watched by other countries debating drug liberalisation.

Cannabis consumers will have to register with the government on a confidential list before making purchases from authorised pharmacies, according to the law passed by Congress in December.

CHINA: The broadcast regulator has issued a surprise order to online streaming companies to stop showing four US shows — sitcom The Big Bang Theory, political and legal show The Good Wife, crime drama NCIS, and legal drama The Practice.

The first two are particularly popular with a young online audience and ‘Give me back Sheldon’ — a reference to The Big Bang Theory’s socially inept physicist — became a popular refrainamong social media users angry about its disappearance.

The boss of Chinese online video site Sohu — Charles Zhang — said he thinks it does not represent a wider trend, though it is not clear why the shows were targeted.

USA: A Southern California city council put off voting on whether to declare a popular hot sauce maker’s factory a public nuisance, as the two sides sought a settlement over residents’ complaints of tear-inducing fumes.

Irwindale mayor Mark Breceda told dozens of Huy Fong Foods workers wearing “Save Sriracha” shirts, as well as residents and others, that he “loves the chili sauce” but was asking the company for a few unspecified “little things”.

“It’s never been this council’s goal to shut this place down,” Breceda said. “No one wants you here more, Huy Fong Foods, than this city council. I’m positive we can resolve the issue.”

Irwindale filed a lawsuit against Huy Fong last October saying the smell of peppers being crushed at the plant was causing headaches and irritating the eyes and throats of nearby residents, forcing some to remain indoors.

The council decided to push back a vote on whether to declare the factory a public nuisance until May 14.