News In Brief

A PAUSE FOR PAWS

At first, Mike Bell might have thought, his flight from Washington to San Jose, Calif., was routine. But little did he know a United Airlines employee on the ground was making an out-of-the-ordinary discovery: Bell's dog, Dakota, had been loaded mistakenly into an unheated part of the cargo hold. Once the pilot was informed, he headed to the nearest airport, Denver. Bell, meanwhile, agonized over the possibility his pet hadn't withstood the frigid temperature. But as the other passengers cheered, Dakota appeared safe and sound - and got to ride in coach for the rest of the flight, a departure from airline policy.

SCOOTER, STAY!

Dakota isn't the only canine in the news. Halfway around the world, in Berlin, "first dog" Scooter - the pet of German President Johannes Rau - escaped from his owner's villa over the weekend. Police launched an intense search, but it was a concerned citizen, alerted by radio reports, who found the dog four days later.

Free time: not so cherished after all, global survey finds

Given a choice between having more money or more time off, which would you prefer? According to results of a new survey by the New York-based marketing/ research organization Roper Starch Worldwide, large majorities of Europeans and North Americans would rather have the cash. As a region, Asia's developing countries - notably India, Thailand, Vietnam, and the Philippines - preferred time. Findings were based on 30,000 in-person interviews in 30 countries between November 1999 and last February. Selected results from the survey and the percentage of respondents for each choice:

TABLE

Prefer money time

Russia 71% 13%

France 63 22%

Poland 63 24%

Argentina 62 34%

Canada 61 32%

Britain 60 29%

Taiwan 60 29%

US 57 37%

India 31 66%

- Reuters

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