Drunk foreigner loves Megawati

JAKARTA: The management of Blok M Plaza in South Jakarta called the police on Wednesday afternoon to pick up an apparently intoxicated foreign man who was bothering shoppers.

Wearing a brown shirt, black trousers and carrying a black bag, the man, who identified himself as Theo and said he was a businessman, entertained officers and reporters at the South Jakarta Police Headquarters while attempting to contact his Indonesian wife to come and pick him up.

The man claimed that he and his wife lived in Ciledug, South Jakarta.

Although he said he was Russian, the man could not identify Vladimir Putin as that country's prime minister. When asked if he knew who Megawati Soekarnoputri was, he replied: "Oooh, I love her so much ... and I like it here, people are friendly here."

The man said he had had at least four glasses of rum at a cafe.

"I am completely drunk and I feel very good," he said, while producing a small tape recorder from his bag and recording his conversation with the police.

The police said they would release the man to his wife and no charges would be filed against him. -- JP