News In Brief

LEMME SEE YOUR LICENSE, PAL

The car was traveling extremely fast. In fact, news reports said, the speed was measured at 87 m.p.h., prompting at least one concerned phone call to police. But the matter is all resolved now. The driver has been identified and has even confessed to shattering the speed limit on a Danish highway. It seems Sweden's King Carl Gustaf was in a hurry to meet his children at the Copenhagen airport so they all could attend a birthday party for Queen Margrethe of Denmark. Said his majesty, a sports car buff: "I apologize."

HEY, NO ONE ELSE WAS UP YET

Then there's Perley King, who borrowed his sister's car early on a recent Sunday to search for an open store so he could buy a box of Cheerios for breakfast. Three miles later, the Tacoma, Wash., resident failed in his quest but did find an unsympathetic police officer. You see, Perley is only seven and his feet don't reach the pedals, so he was attempting to drive using tactics observed in a computer game. His new notoriety led General Mills Inc. to provide a year's supply of the cereal, thus keeping him fed - and off the streets.

Mouse-infested cities: where this is the biggest problem

It's conventional wisdom that big cities and rodents go hand in hand, and that's basically what the results of a new survey by Reckitt Benckiser Inc., the Wayne, N.J., maker of d-Con, found. Its "Top 10 Worst Mouse Cities" are basically the most populous US metropolises - although Chicago, generally ranked third biggest, finished seventh on the list. The rankings were determined using ACNielsen data on sales of rodenticide products in supermarkets. The 1999 results:

1. Los Angeles

2. New York

3. Houston

4. Philadelphia

5. San Antonio

6. Dallas

7. Chicago

8. San Francisco

9. Denver

10. Washington

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