People: Linda hops off for Kiwi beef

THE seemingly unstoppable republican tide in Australia may be good news for kangaroos. This started to become clear yesterday when it was disclosed the Queen's representative has effectively signed a death-warrant for 100 of the animals that hop around his house.

About a dozen kangaroos were brought to the 130-acre Government House estate more than a decade ago, but there are now about 140. Governor-General Bill Hayden wants only a small number of neutered kangaroos to stay.

Fortunately for Mr Hayden, Linda McCartney's crusade to bring vegetarianism to the dark corners of the Earth has left Australia and its pig-breeding leader, Paul Keating, to rethink his relationship with animals, and swept on to New Zealand. There she has seen fit to provoke the Prime Minister, Jim Bolger, into calling her a 'spoilt rich girl'.

His comment followed Mrs McCartney's criticism that Mr Bolger was not very bright, because he was a beef farmer who bred animals for people to eat.

CARRINGTON of Gdynia is in trouble. The Polish entrepreneur Janusz Lekszton, thought by many to resemble the much- admired Dyansty character, has been arrested for allegedly manipulating bank loans, when building his dollars 500m gas-boiler and videotape business empire, El-Gaz, ranked the largest private business in Poland in 1991. Mr Lekszton denied all allegations after his arrest at the weekend, then he collapsed. His lawyer said he had a history of coronary problems and had suffered a heart attack. Mr Lekszton is 31.

JAPAN'S labour office has ruled that a supermarket attendant who died of a haemorrhage after working 360 days in a row was not a victim of karoshi - death from overwork.

According to a claim by his widow, Yuji Iguchi, 43, worked 360 days during 1989. After taking the first three days off in 1990, he worked until February 10, when he collapsed. He died two days later. Japan's labour standards say a victim of karoshi must be sick or suffer injury one week before death, whether or not the person has had regular weekly days off or taken proper vacation time.

EMPEROR Akihito, whose drubbing of George Bush at tennis last year immediately preceded the famous Tokyo banquet at which Mr Bush threw up over his hosts, has cancelled plans to build two new tennis courts at the palace. allegedly to save money.

Total building costs for the emperor's new living quarters are estimated at 5bn yen ( pounds 30m). It was unclear how much money would be saved by skimping on the tennis courts.

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