World Scene: Russia

Vodka binge lands man in coma

Russians are no strangers to vodka, but a binge by one laid-off factory worker who consumed an estimated 8 bottles in a session had even seasoned doctors gasping in astonishment.

Sergei Kondratyev, from Yekaterinburg city, told the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper he had just been laid off and, feeling "awfully disappointed", headed to a grocery store for a bottle of vodka and two lumps of cream cheese.