Jackson takes Stalin's place!

PRAGUE. Czech Republic: Michael Jackson ha* taken Stalin's place, reports AP

A 10-foot (3-metre). 4,600-pound (2.100-kifogram) "statue of the King of Pop has been erected on tfie same spot where a statue of the Soviet dictator once stood.

The temporary statue can be seen from the Intercontinental Hotel, where Jackson is staying while preparing for the first shows in his latest world tour.

Jackson visited children at an orphanage but refused to reveal himself to hundreds of fans waiting for a glimpse outside his hotel.

• Unmarried nursing candidates must be virgin!

VISAKHAPATNAM: Andhra Pradesh government has or dered a probe into the alleged virginity test conducted on the nursing candidates seeking admission to the famous King George Hospital in Visakhapatnam. reports PTI

A three-mernber committee comprising the Visakhapatnam Joint Collector. Ms Poonam Malakondaiah and two doctors, began the inquiry into the matter Saturday

The committee would submit its report to the state government." official sources said.

The controversy started after a student from west Godavari lodged a complaint with the police that the hospital authorities were refusing to accept the certificate Issued by the Mandal revenue officials stating that the candidates were unmarried. The hospital authorities instead conducted virginity test.

However, the hospital sources said that the test conducted were routine as per the medical guidelines laid down by the director of the medical health.

She hadn't slept in 31 years

HANOI: A woman from Ho'Chi Minh City in southern Vietnam claimed she hadn’t slept in 31 Jears and had twice attempted suicide because of her condition which doctors say is "extremely rare,” reports AFP.

Nguyen Thi Le Hang said she abruptly stopped sleeping in 1965 when her first child was born, a report in the Nguoi Lao Dong newspaper said Sunday.

Neither traditional medicine nor modern tranquilisers had helped the woman, now 54 years old to sleep. Instead, she followed a social diet to prevent growing too thin and kept busy at night with housework.

A doctor at Bach Mal Hospital in Hanoi, told AFP "this case was extremely rare in Vietnam." but that he had heard about similar cases a few years ago In China.

"My greatest wish is to leave my body to science." Hang said.

Return from death

DELHI: Indian pilgrim Rattan Dutta did not get the welcome he expected when ne returned home after surviving a Himalayan disaster that cost around 240 people their lives, reports AFP.

His family took one look at him, then slammed the door in his face, the Untied News of India (UNI) reported today.

His neighbours and friends, meanwhile, fled in panic and cowered behind locked doors.

Dutta, it turned out. had been declared dead days before by an official list of the victims of last month's Amarnath pilgrimage tragedy in Kashmir.

Tils family, which lives in Calcutta, thought they were being visited by hts ghost and it took some time for him to convince them that he was still very much alive.