News In Brief

AND THIS IS WHAT'S-HER-NAME

Let's say you and your spouse are expecting a child, on whom you plan to confer a gender-neutral first name. No problem, right? It would be if you were the Kepurras of Oranienburg, Germany. For a year now, they have done battle with registry officials over plans to name their daughter Jona. Can't do that, they were told. Why? Because the obvious intent is to make a boy's name into a girl's by dropping the "h" on the end. The registry even has gone so far as to appeal a recent court decision granting mom and dad their wish. Meanwhile, baby Kepurra remains nameless.

***

HERE'S A PERFECT EXAMPLE ...

In Boksburg, South Africa, a 20-something apparently bent on stealing computer-related items was arrested as soon as he broke into the public library. Most likely, he didn't realize that a meeting of local business people was under way inside. The subject of discussion: crime. The guest speaker: Police Superintendent Christo Heunis.

***

Most-requested websites by searchers on Lycos

The popular Japanese cartoon Dragonball and the Internal Revenue Service were the most-common terms entered by Internet users on the Lycos search engine last week, the company reported. (Dragonball, along with pop star Britney Spears, has been one of the top Web-search terms for years.) As letters from the IRS arrived in mailboxes, telling taxpayers they'll receive rebates soon, searches for its site were almost as common as around the April filing deadline. Lycos's rankings are derived from roughly 12 million queries a day. Last week's top subjects:

1. Dragonball

2. Internal Revenue Service

3. Tour de France bike race

4. "Big Brother" (TV show)

5. British Open golf tournament

6. Britney Spears

7. tattoos

8. "Final Fantasy" (movie)

9. Napster

10. World Wrestling Federation

- Entertainment Wire

(c) Copyright 2001. The Christian Science Monitor