News of the weird

Legal hormones: research at Georgia State University has shown that courtroom lawyers - both male and female - have higher testosterone levels than those who are not called upon to perform in court. According to a study to be published in the Journal of Applied Social Change, lawyers as a group do not have especially high testosterone levels. Testosterone is the male sex hormone that is often linked to competitiveness and anti- social behaviour.

Fast food: Farmers in the Philippines have been combating a plague of rats in the rice fields by electrocuting them with wires placed around the water-logged fields, which are then connected - usually illicitly - to the power grid. According to the regional crops director, Cesar Rodriguez: "The average catch is 800 rats a night. The beauty is that it also gives additional income, because early in the morning they are selling the rats in the market ... at 30-35 pesos (73-85 cents) per kilo of dressed rat. This is becoming a delicacy because some think it is a good aphrodisiac as a substitute for cobra." Vietnam is also plagued by rats, but they blame the export of cats to the Chinese, who eat them.