AN EYE ON... employment

Russia: Reports from Moscow indicate that the embalmers who are paid a pittance to look after Lenin's mummified body are moonlighting in part- time jobs such as preserving the corpses of wealthy Russians killed in gangland wars. Yuri Romanov, the deputy head of the Scientific Centre of Biological Studies, was quoted as saying that many of his younger employees were using their embalming skills in their spare time. "It is a terrible lack of money that drives them to this."

Thailand: A new job has been created by the country's economic slump. One elderly woman has opened up business acting as an intermediary for people who are too embarrassed to go to a pawnbroker's shop. Chob Malidol, 66, said that more and more customers were coming to her with gold necklaces, watches, cooking pots and other goods to be taken to the pawnshop.

United States: The US Mail Service has suffered a blow to its prestige as 11 postal supervisers have been suspended for cheating in a test designed to show how quickly they could deliver the mail.