yesterday was a ...

Good Day for superstition, as reports from Naples indicate heavy betting on the numbers 14, 22 and 31 in the state lottery. According to a system popular in Italy, in which numbers are assigned to a wide variety of objects and events, 14 is linked to the ear, 22 is associated with a bite and 31 means animal.

Bad Day for insults, as the Austrian foreign minister, Wolfgang Schuessel, denied reports that he had called the German president of the Bundesbank a "real pig". Schuessel said: "This is a malicious misrepresentation. Such words do not belong in my vocabulary." Meanwhile in Strasbourg, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that an Austrian journalist should not have been fined for calling a politician an "idiot". Gerhard Oberschlick had described Joerg Haider as a "Trottel" [idiot] when the far-right politician made a speech saying that all Second World War soldiers were fighting for peace, whichever side they were on. Haider successfully sued Oberschlick and was awarded pounds 200 in damages, which was reduced to pounds 50 on appeal. The European Court has now ruled that Oberschlick should get his money back, with costs.