World Vignettes

Spicy rumours do the roundsLONDON: Days after newspapers reported that Posh Spice Victoria Adams is pregnant, The News Of The World on Su...

Spicy rumours do the rounds
LONDON: Days after newspapers reported that Posh Spice Victoria Adams is pregnant, The News Of The World on Sunday announced that a second member of the hit band the Spice Girls is expecting. 8220;I8217;m not saying yes and I8217;m not saying no,8221; the tabloid quoted Scary Spice Melanie Brown as saying. But when the paper asked her father for comment, he said:8220;How did you find out? You8217;re the first.8221;

The News of the World said 23-year-old Brown and her 8220;delighted fiance,8221; dancer Jimmy Gulzar, plan to marry as soon as the group finishes its US tour, which ends this week.

8220;The pair have already phoned Mel8217;s family in Leeds to tell them about the baby. Excited Mel has also bought a house and is having builders install a nursery,8221; the newspaper said.

No one answered calls at the office of the Spice Girls8217; spokesman, Alan Edwards.

Adams, 24, and her fiance, Manchester United soccer star David Beckham, have not commented on reports she is pregnant. They plan to marrynext year. Adams will take time off from the Spice Girls8217; hectic schedule but will not leave the band, reports said.

Cow sweat
LONDON: A chemical secreted in the sweat of cows could protect cattle from aggressive flies according to a report in British science journal New Scientist. An international team of researchers has isolated scents in the sweat of cows that influences flies8217; behaviour. Since some cows attract more flies than others, the team led by Michael Birkett of the Institute of Arable Crops Research in Rothamsted, Britain, investigated the sweat secreted by those least plagued by the insects. They discovered 18 chemicals that cows secrete and which stimulate nerves in flies.

The scientists have already tested the effects of one of these chemicals on a small herd of six cows by placing amounts of the chemical in slow-release bags on the backs of the two cows in the herd most plagued by flies.

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They found that once the chemical had seeped into their coats, the animals previously mostattracted by flies were now only plagued just as often as the others.

Royal successor
LONDON: Almost one year after the death of Princess Diana, Britain appears to have found a new royal to love 8212; her unpopular ex-husband Prince Charles. In a Mori opinion poll for the Weekly Mail on Sunday, 61 per cent of those questioned said they thought Charles would make a good king, up from 42 per cent one year ago.

The British public seemed to have forgiven Charles his adulterous relationship with mistress Camilla Parker-Bowles. A year ago 66 per cent of those asked said they were against Charles marrying Parker-Bowles once he became king. This time around, that figure was down to 41 per cent.