World Vignettes

Shorter working week leads to divorce: study
BONN: Couples who work less seem more likely to divorce, a German university study appearing in several publications in Germany has shown. The Luneburg university study focused on the northern town of Wolfsburg where German automobile maker Volkswagen has major plant which has been operating a four-day week since 1994. Between 1990 and 1994, an average of 314 couples divorced in Wolfsburg per year. Since 1994, this number has risen to 465 per year on average, an increase of 48 per cent, the study found. The authors of the study concluded that although more couples had more time on their hands they had less money to spend after switching to a 28.8-hour week.

Tube baby turns 20
LONDON: Louise Brown, the world8217;s first test tube baby, celebrated her 20th birthday yesterday. Earlier this week, she sent a message of support to a birthday party in the House of Commons to mark 20 years of In Vitro Fertilisation the technique of bringing sperm and eggtogether in a laboratory pioneered by Professor Robert Edwards and Dr. Patrick Steptoe. 8220;I8217;m glad mum and dad were given the opportunity of having IVF 20 years ago,8221; Louise said. 8220;I wish this was available to all who need it now.8221; Since Louise8217;s birth on July 25, 1978, in vitro fertilisation treatment has resulted in 29,000 babies in Britain and thousands more around the world including Louise8217;s 16-year-old sister Natalie. 8220;I might have come into the world a different way to my friends, but in every other way I am the same,8221; she was quoted as saying.

Tycoon8217;s fortune
DUBLIN: Welsh-born tycoon Albert Gubay, one of the richest men in Britain and Ireland, plans to leave half of his estimated 456 million dollar fortune to the Catholic church as part of a pact he made with God. He will reveal his extraordinary 8220;50:50 deal with God8221; in a previously-recorded Irish radio programme, 8220;Ever Ancient, Ever New8221;, to be broadcast on Thursday next. Gubay, 69, who made a fortune from supermarkets inBritain, Ireland, New Zealand and the US, is now based in the Isle of Man in Dublin. Born in Rhyl, Wales, to an Irish Catholic mother and a Jewish father who fled from persecution in Bagdad, the millionaire 8220;leans towards the Catholic faith8221; and is a regular mass goer.

Film on Diana
LONDON: The Walt Disney company is to co-produce a cartoon film for children on the life of Diana, Princess of Wales, including the obligatory happy ending, The Sunday Times reported. Not mentioning her death in a car crash in Paris last year, the film will conclude with Diana skipping about with children in Paradise, the paper said. The cartoon will be produced by Disney in association with British Company Siriol, with some funding coming from Scottish television. It will be shown in autumn next year on Britain8217;s Channel Five television station and ABC in the United States.