THE ALARMING shrinkage of the 15,000 glaciers in the Himalayas threatens to bring water shortages that could affect up to 500 million people in surrounding countries, say scientists. And if the largest body of ice outside the polar caps continues to retreat at the current rate, they predict the glaciers will be gone within 40 years.

Hemingway's centenary brings golf tournaments, lookalike contests and furnishing fabrics. Not surprisingly, none of the merchandising reflects his obsessions with danger and death. Why do they have to turn Hem into Santa Claus?

This men-kissing business is getting serious. Them kissing me and me kissing them. But especially me kissing them. If I don't kiss at least three men every time I leave the house these days I feel cheated. And it's not just old friends any more, either. Last week I kissed my barber. The week before I kissed a policeman. All right, two policemen. If I was a girl there'd be a word for me. And that's the other thing that's got to stop - going up on my toes and lifting a leg the minute a man offers me his cheek.

THE GLACIERS of the Himalayas are under threat from global warming, which could melt most of them within 40 years - perhaps unleashing floods across areas inhabited by millions of people.

ACITY TRADER who had just become the youngest Briton to reach the summit of Mount Everest is missing, presumed dead, after disappearing on the way down.

GRAHAM RATCLIFFE has stepped on to the summit of Mount Everest and into the record books, becoming the first Briton to scale the world's highest mountain from its north and south sides.

Frontline MOSHI, TANZANIA

I 'VE JUST got a new passport but it's already beginning to fill up with visas. My latest trip was to Bhutan where I was meeting government ministers trying to get permission to travel to a very remote part of that country.

INTENSE COMPETITION for international places has made the back row the most congested stretch of rugby territory in England, but Steve Ojomoh clearly intends to free things up a little. Gloucester's kingpin loose forward has already given Ben Clarke, one of his in-form rivals, a free ticket to the casualty department this season and he is hoping to add the name of Bath's Ben Sturnham to his tally when the great West Country rivals meet in a derby of epic potential at the Recreation Ground this afternoon.

Colossal spiders, rollercoaster boat rides, fish of every shade and size - Nicholas Schoon was transfixed by Zanzibar's poor relation

JOHN REID rode a Sandown double on potentially the two best horses in action in Britain yesterday. The two-year-old Fantastic Light stamped himself a promising young stayer as he made it two from two in the Sun Stakes and the four-year-old Kissogram took another step in her relative One So Wonderful's hoofprints in the Atalanta Stakes.

By Sue Montgomery

FOR THOSE seeking an antidote to the stuffy elements of the Royal meeting the results fell perfectly yesterday.

THE SUMMIT of Everest, as I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, will remain beyond the grasp of most mere mortals until the day they hook up a cable-car to the top, which isn't likely to happen in the lifetime of anybody reading this.