WORLDLY UNWISE

Will he find a house fit for a king?
Nepal8217;s ousted King Gyanendra is looking for a house and consulting astrologers to find out when to quit the palace after a special assembly abolished the monarchy, newspaper reports published Saturday said. A historic assembly vote Wednesday turned Nepal into a republic and gave deposed King Gyanendra two weeks to leave the sprawling Narayanhity palace in the heart of the capital. It said Gyanendra was looking for a house as his son Paras and his family were living in the private home in an upmarket area in Kathmandu where the dethroned king lived before ascending the throne in 2001.
The independent daily Naya Patrika said the 60-year-old Gyanendra did not want to leave the palace until early July when an astrological 8220;dark8221; phase is due to end. 8220;Astrologers have told Gyanendra it would be good if he could stick on to the Narayanhity palace till then,8221; it said.

A woman in the closet
A Japanese man who was mystified when food kept disappearing from his kitchen, set up a hidden camera and found an unknown woman living secretly in his closet, Japanese media said Friday. The 57-year-old unemployed man of Fukuoka in southern Japan called police Wednesday when the camera sent pictures to his mobile phone of an intruder in his home while he was out on Wednesday. Officers rushed to the house and found a 58-year-old unemployed woman hiding in an unused closet, where she had secreted a mattress and plastic drink bottles, the Asahi said. Police suspect she may have been there for several months.8221;I didn8217;t have anywhere to live,8221; the Nikkan Sports tabloid quoted the woman as telling police. Local police confirmed that they had arrested a woman for trespassing, but would not comment further on the case.

Man jailed for faking his death
A Singapore man was jailed for three years after he faked his own death in a civil war shoot-out in Sri Lanka in 1987 to escape his creditors and claim 243,600 in insurance money, a newspaper reported Saturday. Gandaruban Subramaniam fled Singapore more than 20 years ago 8212;harassed by creditors and illegal money lenders since the failure of his car rental business 8212; and moved to London to work as a street sweeper. The 60-year old eventually settled in Sri Lanka where he managed to obtain a death certificate stating he had been killed in a shootout between government troops and Tamil Tiger rebels, allowing his family to claim on his insurance policies. But he returned to Singapore a number of times using a fake Sri Lankan passport and also remarried his wife in Sri Lanka in 1994 and fathered a son, their fourth child, two years later. The couple has since divorced.
-Agencies