Yesterday was a ...

Good Day for Margaret Thatcher, as an unnamed Welshman bet pounds 100 at odds of 250 to 1 that she will return to lead the Conservatives by 1999. According to a spokesman for Ladbrokes, his bet is based on a prediction by Nostradamus that in 1999 "she who has been cast aside will return again".

Bad Day for Giuseppe Scirocco, an Italian fruit and vegetable seller who has been served a tax bill for 76 billion lire (pounds 32m). Mr Scirocco, whose wife fainted on seeing the bill, said that he stopped paying taxes two years ago because he couldn't afford them. "Now they want all that money, and I can't even remember what a 100,000 lire note looks like."

Joyful Day for Mike and Zuzu, whose first baby weighed in at 2.4lb. Mike and Zuzu are the only officially married orang-utan couple in Thailand.

Uplifting Day for Russians, as the staff at a factory in Volgograd has started paying its workers in ladies' underwear. A typical employee earns between 33 and 42 bras a month. "You can earn up to 40 per cent more than your salary by selling these items," said one contented woman employee.