Rats cause traffic headache

MOSCOW Hungry rats are c ausing a major headache for motorists and traffic police in Moscow. reports AP

Many traffic lights in the Russian capital don't work because rats have been eating through underground cables that control the signals. The Rossylskaya Gazette reported Wednesday

“Rats are to be blamed for thts/ traffic police spokesman Ivan Belyzh was quoted as saying.

The rats eat the plastic coated cables more quickly than the understaffed traffic department can fix them, the report said

Widespread exam fraud

HARARE: Police said Wednesday they uncovered a widespread fraud scheme that enabled thousands of highschool students to cheat on examinations, reports AP.

Advance copies of question papers were sold for between 3 dollars and 15 dollars to teenagers taking ordinary and advanced level exams, said police spokesman Phebton Magede.

Virtually all subjects were available, and some pupils bought specific questions written out by hand to help them prepare the answers. Magede said

He said pupils gave descriptions of sellers who approached them, but no arrests have been made.

The Education Ministry said the fraud could lead to the nullification of thousands of results, causing delays In entrance to colleges and universities as new tests are resched-■ uled.

About 400,000 pupils are writing their high school exams.

The Education Ministry said officials were investigating possible leaks from teachers or the ministry’s own exam supervisors.

Guard robs bank to collect overtime pay

MANILA: A security guard found a novel way to collect his overtime pay: he robbed the bank he was supposed to be guarding, police said, reports AP.

Officers said Madlor Pocaan, 27, and two companions entered the Capitol Bank in suburban Muntinlupa late Tuesday as he and other employees were working overtime.

Armed with a shotgun, the robbers announced a holdup, collected 800.000 pesos (dlrs 28.500) tn a bag and then fled out the back door, police and other employees said.

Employees telephoned the police as soon as the robbers left. But it took responding patrolmen more than an hour to break the padlocks that the thieves had used to lock the front and rear entrances.

Police rushed to the address that the guard had given the security agency but discovered II was false. |

Haven for map lovers

WASHINGTON: The Smithsonian -Institution, which runs most of.Washington's museums, has opened a haven for lovers of maps, reports AP.

Big maps and little maps, round maps and square maps, long skinny maps and gigantic wall maps.

There are maps that stick to the wall with velcro. Maps hand drawn on ancient vellum. Maps on computer screens. And maps made of sticks tied together with bark strips.

The first thing the visitor sees is a challenge to the whole idea of the impartial map pointing out that for all their apparent objectivity maps are never neutral.

Like advertisements and other forms of graphic design, they present information selectively, reflecting particular points of view It says on the wall.