World Vignettes

Now, an appeal has been launched to restore the water well widely thought to have been immortalised in the popular nursery rhyme.

The well, at the top of a steep hill in this small west England town, has long been sealed over, so villagers have decided to try to raise the cash needed to renovate the immediate area and make it more visitor-friendly.

It is thought Jack and Jill were a married couple who lived in the Kilmersdon area between 1485 and 1509.

Folklore has it that the pair climbed the hill, on top of which was an area called Bad Stone from which dangerous boulders rolled, and were killed by a runaway rock.

Kilmersdon parish council chairman Barry Fowler said the restoration project would cost about Aring;ldquo;30,000 48,600.

Local historians have always linked Jack and Jill to this village,8221; Fowler said. We havethis claim to fame which is not very well set up at the moment. We want to keep it fairly low-key, but enhance it so people and especially children can enjoy it.8221;

Transsexual diva

JERUSALEM: She8217;s man enough for them. The head of a rabbinical court says Dana International, Israel8217;s celebrated transsexual singer, could be counted in a minyan, the group of ten men required for Jewish prayer services.

Whoever is born male remains so his entire life, The Maariv daily quoted rabbi Eliyahu Abergal as saying during a lecture in a Jerusalem synagogue about how Jewish law applies to transsexuals.

However, the sultry winner of this year8217;s Eurovision contest would have to become religiously observant before qualifying for prayer group, the rabbi said. Dana International, who had a sex change operation five years ago, has become a symbol for the increasingly bitter rift between Israel8217;s secular majority and its ultra-religious minority.

The country8217;s orthodox establishment has denounced her as anabomination while secular Israelis embraced her in a sign of increasing mainstream acceptance of the country8217;s gay community.

Love magician

TAIPEI: A Taiwanese company has come up with a 8220;love magician8221; machine that promises to electronically determine if a couple are truly meant for each other. The gadget is a pocket size electronic device that compares a couple8217;s vital statistics and then announces whether they are a suitable match.

Couples eager to know if their relationships are heading toward marital bliss or a deadend 8212; punch in their heights, weights, blood types, birthdays, astrological signs, hobbies, and favourite foods and colours.If the two are compatible, the screen will flash 8220;successful connection,8221; and a doll face will appear, the width of whose smile indicates the degree of compatibility, the paper said.

Delayed birth

SAO PAULO Brazil: In what doctors described as a rare case, a 34-year-old woman gave birth to a baby girl less than a month afterprematurely delivering her twin brother.

Marisa Comunello Floriano was six months pregnant on April 22 when she gave birth to a 630-gram boy in the southern city of Londrina, 450 kms west of Sao Paulo.

The infant died 20 hours later of 8220;extreme prematureness,8221; the mother8217;s gynaecologist Ricardo Pereira said by phone.

Delivery of the second twin was delayed for 25 days, and on May 17, Maria Angela was born, weighing 940 grams.