Yesterday was a ...

Funny Day for jokes, as Erkki Kylu and Valdo Yahillo, two radio journalists from Tartu, Estonia, completed a 61-hour session of joke-telling designed to get themselves into the Guinness Book of Records. Unfortunately, they had consulted an out-of-date edition, and were unaware that a Peruvian had told jokes for 100 hours in Lima in 1990.

Bad Day for rain-making, as Chom Inchan, 48, a village headman in Thailand, was killed when a rocket he had fired into the air in a ceremony to ask the gods to provide rain to water their crops fell back to earth and hit him fatally on the head.

Inauspicious Day for Swiss banks, as a French medium called Julien predicted that "money will not bring happiness to Swiss banks", at an international exhibition of mediums and clairvoyants in Geneva.