Monitor

When the earth shook

MISCELLANEOUS

Stories from around the world

The Scotsman

STEP FORWARD Aberdeen's Lord Provost, Margaret Smith, who has unveiled an animal rights policy banning council house tenants from owning carnivorous pets. "Carnivorous" apparently covers lizards and snakes, which eat live fish. But it does not include cats and dogs that eat tinned [meats]. But, Lord Provost, don't some cats eat live mice and other people's pet budgies? And don't Jack Russell terriers dart down holes to kill things... ? Why do pet-obsessed Scottish councillors not concentrate on winning millions of votes by enforcing with draconian zeal existing by-laws on forbidding dogs fouling pavements. New dog police who gave instant fines to pavement foulers would win the thanks of a grateful nation.

Times of India

INDIANS ARE far less susceptible to Alzheimer's disease than those in the West, according to a recent study, apparently because of lower cholesterol levels among Indians, particularly those in rural areas, whose diet is far more spartan than that of their urban counterparts, who are likely to have higher cholesterol levels. But with food habits changing rapidly from a traditional vegetarian, high-fibre diet to a richer one, the levels of cholesterol are likely to rise and with it the attendant risk of, not just Alzheimer's, but coronary disease.