MEANWHILE...

Neglected news items from the past week.

Neglected news items from the past week.

Nappy talk

In Bangkok, Thailand, 74 men were arrested for cheating in an army officers' school entrance examination. The men were discovered to be wearing nappies concealing radio receivers. There is no law against cheating in exams in Thailand, so the men were charged with illegal use of electronic communications equipment.

Dust persons

The city government of Paris has announced that women will be eligible for employment as garbage collectors "in response to a growing demand".

Holy lottery

The winning numbers in the first national lottery in the Philippines were 4, 20, 22, 24, 30 38. Bishops opposed the lottery, but a government spokesman claimed that so few Filipinos pay their taxes that the lottery is "voluntary taxation" with prizes. Holy water was shaken on the balls before the draw.

Signs of life

A deaf man threatening to throw himself off a 20-storey building in New York was talked down by police with the help of two teachers from a nearby school for the deaf.

Legal en-tweetie

Judge Yoichi Ono of the Kagoshima District Court in Japan issued a court order to list the legal names and residences of the Amami Hare, Lidth's Jay, White's Ground Thrush and Amami Woodcock. Environmentalists had filed a suit on behalf of the animals to prevent the construction of a golf course. Under Japan's compensation laws, courts cannot accept suits without plaintiffs' names and addresses.

Fairway to heaven

James Broomer, a lawyer who died in November, has left £1,000 to Brough Golf Club in Hull on condition that signs asking players to avoid slow play, repair pitch marks and rake bunkers are removed from the course. He said in his will: "Such signs are

Heading

More than 1,500 policemen stood guard in the village of Chandragutti, in southern Indian to prevent Hindu pilgrims from carrying out a centuries- old tradition of trekking to a hill-top temple in the nude. Every year thousands of low-caste Hindus would strip for a holy dip in the Varada River, then climb four km (2-1/2 miles) with their clothes off to offer prayers to the goddess at the hill-top temple.Police banned the nude pilgrimage after clashes in 1987. "There is no bar on worship at the temple," a police spokesman said, "but strictly with clothes on."