World Scene: Laos

'Briton impregnated self'

Police in Laos said a British woman to be tried today for heroin trafficking secretly impregnated herself with the sperm of another prisoner in an effort to escape the death penalty, according to a government newspaper.

Samantha Orobator's trial, originally scheduled for early May, had been delayed while authorities tried to determine how she could have become pregnant inside the prison. Under criminal law in Laos, a pregnant woman cannot receive the death penalty.