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NHS patients are getting poorer care than millions of people being treated for a similar price in the US, according to a study. It found patients treated by a non-profit organisation in California had access to significantly more specialists than those in Britain. They also discovered the US patients spent only a third as much time in hospital as those receiving NHS care. The University of California team rejected the idea the British health service is efficient and suffers poor performance in certain areas simply because of under-investment. A spokesman for the British Department of Health said the findings showed ...

Voters in Uttar Pradesh are in for an extra dose of hypnotism this election. About 200 of the country's leading magicians will soon campaign for a magician contesting the UP Assembly seat from Govindnagar in Kanpur district. The Samajwadi Party has fielded renowned magician OP Sharma from Govindnagar. The magicians' campaign is likely to add a lot of flamboyance to the poll campaign. The magicians have decided to ride motorcycles blindfolded in a procession the day Sharma files his nomination papers. They have also decided to perform magic shows and hypnotise voters during election campaigning. Sharma said that irrespective of ...

An Australian road sign pointing to Turd Terrace has been pulled down after outraged protests from residents. The street is named after a local councillor who goes by the Turd nickname. Residents feared the sign may put off tourists visiting Bundaleer Forest in South Australia's barren outback. The council erected the sign to replace a makeshift one put up two years ago as a joke. But locals have become concerned Turd Terrace may send out the wrong message about the area. It's not known whether the road will be renamed in the future, Australian broadcaster, ABC reports.

Researchers are developing a wearable computer that guides drinkers to the nearest pub. Bristol University scientists are working on the HandPC which uses global positioning technology. The watch-sized device even gives a short description of the pub and the exact distance the wearer is from it. The HandPC is part of a wearable computing project backed by Hewlett Packard. According to the Western Daily Press a more respectable gadget is in the works. They say the Bristol University team is also working on a jacket that leads tourists on a guided tour of the city.

ABU-DHABI, January 16, 2002. /from RIA Novosti correspondent Igor Kuznetsov/--Former Afghan King Zahir Shah will return in Kabul in early March 2002, said Afghan Ambassador to Rome Hamidullah Nasser Zia. The monarch who ruled in Afghanistan in 1932-1973 will participate in the celebrations of the New Year (Navruz) which are to start on March 21st and will initiate a session of the so-called Loya Jirga, the Afghan supreme tribal body which is to determine the structure of the permanent government at its first meeting on June 22nd. Afghanistan needs at least 25,000 foreign peace-makers to provide security and stability in ...

DAMMAM, 16 January — A four-legged chicken produced at a poultry farm in Dammam has created a sensation here, and the manager on whose farm it hatched has received many offers from potential buyers. The deputy general manager of Afnan Poultry Farm, Abdul Aziz Khan, brought the freak chicken to the Arab News bureau in Dammam. He said that the chicken was now 40 days old and weighed 1,200 grams. Apparently, the chicken lives a normal life. While it walks with its two front legs only, when running it uses all four. Khan said that the fact the chicken had ...

America's Justice Department is set to double the reward for information about the anthrax attacks. The reward is expected to go up to £1.65 million in a bid to catch the perpetrators of the attacks which left five people dead and 18 others ill. Nobody has been arrested in the investigation, which is being led by the FBI. USA Today newspaper reports Justice Department officials fear if they do not get a break in the case, it could be years before it is solved. The FBI is increasingly convinced a well-educated loner, probably an American who hates the government, is ...

A campaign to build public support for the return of the Elgin Marbles is being launched on Wednesday. Parthenon 2004 wants the British government to agree to returning the stone friezes to Greece before the Olympic Games in Athens. They were taken from the Acropolis in 1801 and Britain has always argued it should keep the artworks, which once decorated the sides of the Parthenon. They are on display at the British Museum in London. The Parthenon 2004 campaign will be launched by Richard Allan MP and it has the backing of political figures like Michael Foot and Tony Banks ...

AEMIAA South African ambulanceman has vowed to carry on saving lives even though he may have only months to live. Lester Pieters, who's 21, has leukaemia and will die in the next few months unless he gets a bone marrow transplant. But he has refused to stop working and puts in 12 hour shifts in between undergoing painful chemotherapy sessions. "Initially I was very depressed, but I quickly got my mind in gear with the help of friends, family, and especially my colleagues at metro rescue," said Lester, who lives and works in Cape Town. "Helping save the lives of ...

Officials in the US have set up a motion detector and floodlights to try to catch a person defecating near a water tower. The nighttime offender in White Bear Township in Minnesota has managed to elude police for months. The only clue left has been toilet paper and its substitutes. The Ramsey County Sheriff's Department has a deputy stationed nearby and has added extra patrols. One local official told the Pioneer Planet: "We don't know what's motivating the midnight pooper. I'm curious about the culprit, but I just want to stop it." Lieutenant Mike Salter said: "We couldn't even speculate. ...

A ten year old from Philadelphia who won a bet he could do without TV for a year says programmes now bore him. Cory Rundle's father promised him $5,000 if he went a whole year without TV. He says he spent the year reading and learning to play the harmonica. He now plans to buy a guitar. He told The Intelligencer: "It's boring. You can do so many better things than watch TV." Of the challenge, he says: "At first, I didn't know if I was going to do it. Then I did it. My dad came back from a ...

DRUNKEN youths disrupted Japan's annual coming of age ceremonies yesterday, adding to concerns that the younger generation do not share the traditional Japanese values of courtesy and patience. The ceremonies are intended to mark the attainment of adulthood by those who turned 20 in the last 12 months. In recent years, however, the events have become a painful annual reminder of the growing gap between the generations. In Naha city, on the southern island of Okinawa, seven people were arrested after youths drove through a police barricade in an attempt to bring a barrel of sake to the ceremony. Scuffles ...

A giant squid has been netted off the UK coast for the first time in 15 years. The 3.15-metre-long (10.3 feet) creature, caught by an Aberdeen-based trawler, will be a star feature at the National Marine Aquarium in Plymouth, Devon. The squid, believed to be female and three years old, did not survive being brought to the surface. It is thought it would have stretched to about 5.5m in length if it still had its two feeding tentacles, which were lost when it was caught. The creature's beak could cut steel cable. After DNA tests have been conducted, the squid ...

A 25-year-old hospital janitor telephoned women advertising in Horse and Hounds magazine and asked them about their feet, a court has been told. Richard William Cove pleaded guilty at Wellingborough magistrates courts of causing a public nuisance by making 63 calls to 19 different women. However, Michael Joyce, prosecuting, said Cove had told police in interview he made thousands of calls. Mr Joyce said: "He told police there was nothing sexual in his actions and that he got no sexual gratification. He said he had been into feet since he was quite small." He went on to describe how Cove ...

A politician has been suspended for urinating during an amateur Australian Rules Football match. Matthew Bonson is banned from playing for two weeks for weeing behind a bush during the match. The Northern Territory MP was disciplined by local league officials for breaking their by-laws. He was playing a reserve game for the Darwin Buffaloes at Marrara Oval when he was caught short. Labour member for Millner walked from the pitch, went behind a bush and relieved himself. Somebody later reported him to the sport's governing body in the Northern Territory, reports ABC News. Chris Natt, the league spokesman said ...

Crowds are flocking to Indian temples to see a Muslim baby with a 'tail' who is believed to be the reincarnation of a Hindu god. The 11-month-old boy has been named Balaji or Bajrangbali, another name for monkey-faced Lord Hanuman. He is reported to have a 4in 'tail' caused by genetic mutations during the development of the foetus. Iqbal Qureshi, the child's maternal grandfather, is taking Balaji from temple to temple where people offer money to see the boy. Mr Qureshi says the baby has nine spots on his body like Lord Hanuman and showed them to journalists, reports Indian ...

I don't know if you all know this, but I've just noticed that Google has launched a news headline service, with links to versions of the same story from different news sources. Click on the source link above. I think it's pretty cool.

US President George W Bush has warned Iran not to destabilise Afghanistan. He also said that the United States expected Tehran to hand over any members of Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda network who may have fled across the border from Afghanistan and into Iran. His blunt comments reflect Washington's concerns that Iran is trying to challenge the authority of the interim government in Afghanistan and may be giving safe harbour to al-Qaeda leaders fleeing US and allied military troops there. "Iran must be a contributor in the war against terror," Mr Bush told reporters during an Oval Office briefing. "Our ...

THERE has been plenty to turn the stomach along the road to peace in Northern Ireland: the deals done with murderers, the early release from prison of the terrorists, the proposed amnesty for those on the run. Most people find this repellent and disquieting. Yet they are resigned to it because they accept that in Northern Ireland the only way forward is by casting a veil of obscurity over the past. There is one exception to this rule: the British army. While the crimes of loyalist and IRA terrorists have been deliberately forgotten and overlooked, the conduct of soldiers is ...

A Labour MP has been revealed as the star of the world's biggest-selling military computer game. James Plaskitt, MP for Warwick and Leamington, plays the gung-ho platoon commander in Operation Flashpoint. The game has sold more than a million copies since its release last summer, and has been adopted by the US military for combat training. Mr Plaskitt's starring role came about during a visit to the Warwickshire headquarters of the computer game's makers, Codemasters. The MP told The Times: "When I arrived, they were taking a lot of photographs to go with this new computer game and asked if ...