News In Brief

COURTING DISAPPROVAL A man's home is supposed to be his castle, right? Well, no, apparently - at least not if he's the king of a foreign country and the residence is in the posh San Francisco suburb of Hillsborough, Calif. Taufaahau Tupou IV of Tonga wants to add on to the four-bedroom second home he maintains there. It seems the dwelling is too small for the family he brings along on twice-a-year trips to visit with subjects who've migrated to the Bay Area. "Simply unacceptable," huffed neighbors who signed a petition opposing the plan. They are vowing - you should pardon the expression - a battle royal to block the expansion on grounds that the Tongans are too noisy.

Cities that apparently have the most aggressive drivers Cities where people are all but forced to own cars have higher fatality rates from aggressive driving, a new study by an advocacy group for pedestrians and public-transportation maintains. The Surface Transportation Policy Project compared major cities and all 50 states, using data for accidents that involved speeding, tailgating, lane weaving, and running stop signs and red lights. Excluding drug- and alcohol-related incidents, it found densely populated Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and New York - with their older, pedestrian-friendly towns and extensive public-transit systems - had the lowest aggressive-driving fatality rates (3.1, 3.3, and 3.7 per 100,000 residents, respectively). The 10 metropolitan areas with the highest such rates and the number of fatalities per 100,000 residents for each:

1. Riverside/San Bernardino, Calif. 13.4

2. St. Petersburg/Tampa/Clearwater, Fla. 9.5

3. Phoenix 9.2

4. Orlando, Fla. 8.1

5. Miami/Hialeah 8.1

6. Las Vegas 8.1

7. Ft. Lauderdale/Hollywood/ Pompano Beach, Fla. 7.8

8. Dallas-Fort Worth 7.3

9. Kansas City, Mo./Kan. 7.1

10. San Antonio 7.0

- Reuters