SYDNEY (Reuters) - An Australian man convicted of his seventh drink-driving charge was spending about A$1,000 ($972) a week on beer — enough to buy more than 2,500 small bottles a month, a newspaper said Tuesday.

The heartbroken construction worker began drowning his sorrows after breaking up with his partner five years ago, the Northern Territory News said, quoting his defense lawyer as telling a court in Australia’s remote, tropical north.

The magistrate declined to jail the father of four, Michael Leary, noting he had quit drinking since his latest arrest, but he banned Leary from buying or even holding a beer for 12 months.

The magistrate also poked fun at Leary’s favorite beer, Melbourne Bitter, in a part of the country where drinkers can be as loyal to beer brands as they are to football teams.

“(That is) poor judgment on two counts there — drinking that much and drinking Melbourne Bitter,” magistrate Vince Luppino was quoted as saying.

BERLIN (AFP) - If you thought cycling home after the pub was a good idea, think again. A German court ruled Wednesday that inebriated cyclists could forfeit their right to drive a car.

The country’s highest administrative court was ruling on the case of a man near Berlin whose license was taken away after he was caught cycling with a blood-alcohol level four times the legal limit.

Medical tests found he was a heavy drinker and probably often in no state to cope with road hazards. The council appealed when a local court overruled the decision to revoke his license.

Meanwhile other offenses now look set to attract significantly stiffer sentences after Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cabinet approved a raft of new measures aimed at reducing road deaths.

A government spokesman confirmed that drink drivers could from 2009 face fines of up to 3,000 euros (4,720 dollars), double the current maximum, and a penalty of 2,000 euros for jumping a red light.

The tougher laws, which also include higher fines for speeding, still have to be approved by parliament. There is no change planned though to the lack of speed limit on many autobahns.

DARWIN, Australia - An Australian man has been fined after buckling in a case of beer with a seat belt but leaving a 5-year-old child to sit on the car’s floor, police said Tuesday.

Constable Wayne Burnett said he was “shocked and appalled” when he pulled over the unregistered car Friday in the central Australian town of Alice Springs.

The 30-can beer case was strapped in between two adults sitting in the back seat of the car. The child was also in back, but on the car’s floor.

“The child was sitting in the lump in the center, unrestrained,” Burnett told reporters Tuesday.

“I haven’t ever seen something like this before,” he said. “This is the first time that the beer has taken priority over a child.”

The driver was fined 750 Australian dollars — about $710 — for driving an unregistered and uninsured vehicle and for failing to ensure a child was wearing a safety belt.

SOUTH CHICAGO HEIGHTS, Ill. - Bill Bramanti will love Pabst Blue Ribbon eternally, and he’s got the custom-made beer-can casket to prove it. “I actually fit, because I got in here,” said Bramanti of South Chicago Heights.

The 67-year-old Glenwood village administrator doesn’t plan on needing it anytime soon, though.

He threw a party Saturday for friends and filled his silver coffin — designed in Pabst’s colors of red, white and blue — with ice and his favorite brew.

“Why put such a great novelty piece up on a shelf in storage when you could use it only the way Bill Bramanti would use it?” said Bramanti’s daughter, Cathy Bramanti, 42.

Bramanti ordered the casket from Panozzo Bros. Funeral Home in Chicago Heights, and Scott Sign Co. of Chicago Heights designed the beer can.

OLYMPIA, Wash. - Washington lawmakers have approved a pilot program that will allow beer and wine tasting in 30 grocery stores statewide in an effort to market local products.

The measure now heads to the governor, after passing the Senate 29-17 on Monday. It earlier passed the House.

The one-year program, strongly supported by the state’s microbrewery and wine industries, allows shoppers to sample as much as 4 ounces of beer or wine. Supporters say it allows small wineries or breweries with no marketing budget to get their products out to the public.

But opponents contend the program sets a bad example by exposing children to alcohol consumption.