News In Brief

HEY, MY TURN NEXT

If people flee a store with thousands of dollars in broad daylight, and police are called, there must have been a robbery, right? Not necessarily. This happened last week in Cambridge, England. The shop houses an automatic teller machine that a clerk apparently stocked with 20 notes ($32.47) instead of "tenners." It took five hours before the error was discovered and the cops arrived to stop the flow.

JENNY, PLEASE. YES, I'LL HOLD

New Zealand isn't exactly one of the world's most sensitive nations, geopolitically speaking. But you'd think it was, judging by the folks who provide security for the prime minister. They've just changed her confidential phone numbers again - for the third time in less than two years. It seems someone has leaked the digits for Jenny Shipley's official limousine, fax machine, and even her pager and mobile phone to the Internet. Her office insisted the list wasn't complete. But the national intelligence agency is investigating anyway.

USA Today inches into lead as nation's top-selling paper

USA Today has overtaken The Wall Street Journal in circulation, to become the nation's largest daily newspaper for the first time. USA Today sold an average 1,758,477 copies daily in the six-month period ending Sept. 30, according to an industry association analysis. That is a 1.1 percent increase from the same period a year earlier. The Wall Street Journal's average circulation - 1,752,693 copies - was up 0.7 percent. Average weekday circulation of the nation's 10 biggest newspapers for the six months ending Sept. 30, as compiled by the Audit Bureau of Circulations (in millions):

1. USA Today 1.76

2. The Wall Street Journal 1.75

3. The New York Times 1.09

4. Los Angeles Times 1.08

5. The Washington Post, .76

6. New York Daily News .70

7. Chicago Tribune .63

8. Newsday (New York) .57

9. Houston Chronicle .54

10. The Dallas Morning News .51

- Associated Press

(c) Copyright 1999. The Christian Science Publishing Society