World Vignettes

The study said that the main reason for the difference was that men 8220;churn8221; accounts more than women, buying and selling stocks 45 per cent more frequently. With stocks sold by both sexes generally outperforming those they bought, this practice racked up large losses for the males. The worst culprits were young single men who traded 67 per cent more than women, and who earned an average 2.3 per cent less than the females. The experts said that the lower number of female trades may be caused by a lack of familiarity with the stock market. But they also attributed the gap to gender differences, with men believing they were better atinvesting than they actually were, and also being biologically drawn to the thrill of risk taking.

Norwegians paint their town blue

OSLO: FOUR Norwegian artists have come up with a novel idea for celebrating the new millennium in the coastal town of Sortland: Paint the town blue. The mayor of the town in northern Norway fully supports the plan and many house owners have said they will join in the colourful painting ceremony, the Oslo daily Aftenposten reported yesterday. Sortland will now apply to the government for funds to buy 50,000 litres of blue paint to cover 180,000 square metres of walls including a church.

Back to school for parents of truants

AMSTERDAM: PARENTS could wind up back in school if their kids regularly skip class as part of a Dutch government plan to tackle youth crime. Parents of children who constantly play hooky can be fined under Dutch law. But with about 30,000 reports of truancy each year, the government is looking for a more effective solution. One suggestionis for the court to ask parents to perform the equivalent of unpaid community service the Dutch daily NRC Handelsblad reported yesterday. The classes for parents, being put together by education experts at Leiden university, would include lessons on how the school system works, keeping track of your child8217;s timetable and a class called puberty psychology. Three Dutch cities plan to offer the courses on a voluntary basis to parents of truants. If the classes help to reduce truancy, they may be used as a form of sanction by the courts, the newspaper said.

Woman sues dog for inheritance

LOS ANGELES: SHE may be barking up the wrong tree, but Marie Dana feels her late companion treated her a lot worse than a dog in the will that he left. Bathroom fixture magnate Sidney Altman, who died in 1996, left his Beverly Hills mansion and 350,000 US dollars to his ageing pet pooch Samantha, according to a court suit that came to light yesterday. Dana, 32, on the other hand, or paw, was left an annual tax-freestipend of 60,000 dollars and allowed to live in the mansion provided she took care of Samantha, a cocker spaniel. But when Samantha, who is now 15, dies, the will stipulates that Dana loses her 60,000 a year; and the house, valued at about five million, is to be sold and the money distributed to animal charities. So Dana is suing for half the estate, her lawyer, Carygoldstein, told The Los Angeles Times.

Goodbye Miss Australia

SYDNEY: THE Miss Australia competition which men have followed avidly for 46 years is to disappear along with the 20th century because of changing community attitudes, its organisers announced today. The last Miss Australia will be crowned in January 2000, ending a contest which has raised millions of dollars for the disabled since its introduction in the early 1950s.