News In Brief

TONY TO THE RESCUE There's no truth to rumors that British Prime Minister Tony Blair moonlights as a lifeguard when he isn't busy with his governmental duties. Still, it really was Blair who, with his bodyguard, pulled a Danish tourist from swift Indian Ocean currents while vacationing in the Seychelles. Hans Jergensen was tiring after a strenuous swim and shouted to the men in a dinghy about a mile from shore for help. The prime minister had to cut short a cell-phone call to aides back in London so he could assist in hauling Jergensen aboard. He apparently was modest about it all, too. Not until the Dane returned home and was tracked down by reporters did he learn his rescuer's identity. THE ANSWER GUY Then there's Blair's fellow Briton, Lance Haward. Forty-two years after graduating from college, he has reenrolled. Why? He's a crack TV quiz-show guest, and the only one left that he wanted to appear on, "University Challenge," is restricted to students. Ranking top choices in '98 for baby boys', girls' names Michael and Kaitlyn were No. 1 in the US last year, the Social Security Administration reports. It noted, however, that Jos showed up on more birth certificates than any other boy's name in the heavily Hispanic states of Texas and California. The popularity of Jos is due to the growing number of Hispanics in the US population - and their willingness to be open about their ethnicity, says Edward Callary, editor of the journal of the American Name Society. Favorite names reported for boys and girls nationwide in 1998: Boys 1. Michael 2. Jacob 3. Matthew 4. Nicholas 5. Joshua Girls 1. Kaitlyn 2. Emily 3. Sarah 4. Hannah 5. Ashley - Associate Press