meanwhile...

Some neglected news stories of the past week:

1995 has been delayed

The villagers of Berchules, Spain, rang in the new year at noon on 5 August. Complete with Christmas trees and traditional Christmas fare, the festivities had been rescheduled after a 13-hour power cut on 31 December had wrecked the original plans.

Two's company, three's a town

According to a report from China, the town of Yumen in Tibet is the smallest in the world. It has a township government, an administrative head, an official seal and emblem, though its only residents are an elderly man and his two daughters.

Three-kilo stomach ache

A 43-year-old woman entered a hospital in Ancona, Italy, complaining of bad stomach pain and gave birth to a 6.6lb baby shortly afterwards. She had not known she was pregnant.

Motherly love

A Californian woman was arrested and charged with arson. She admitted starting five fires, saying she had done so in order to help her son's career as a firefighter.

Housewives' choice

Argentina has announced plans for the first World Congress of Housewives in October, calling for healthy products, fair prices and advertising that does not use women as sex objects.

Break a leg

Fabio Armiliato, the Italian tenor who dropped out of Tosca last week after injuring his foot during the execution scene, was back on stage on Friday. After the first act, however, he fell over and was taken to hospital with a suspected leg fracture.

Bring-a-bottle party

The Russian Beer Lovers' Party will field 12 candidates at next year's elections. The Party secretary, Dmitry Shestakov, described the Kremlin as a den of vodka-swilling bureaucrats.

Lighting-up time

The first traffic lights were turned on in Stornoway in the Western Isles. A half-mile traffic jam was reported soon after.

No short change

A group of Malaysians have claimed a new world record for the longest line of coins. Their column of 2,367,234 coins, each worth 20 sen (about 5p), stretched 55.63 km (over 34 miles) in Kuala Lumpur. The project was intended to create awareness among Malaysians of the importance of protecting the environment and wildlife.

See Venice and die

Publishers of a postcard with a romantic moonlit scene in Venice have been embarrassed to discover that the scene is not quite what they thought. Above the words "Only you are missing" is a nocturnal view of San Michele in Isola, the famous island cemetery of the city.