LONDON: The palace doctors who treated the Queen Mother earlier this week for a broken collarbone after a late-night fall at her home, Clarance House, said today in a statement that the centenarian was lucky to have escaped the incident so lightly. "The Queen Mother could have been seriously injured if the bottle had broken as well," the doctors said.

WASHINGTON: As if stung by the fact that the world's media is now concentrating on the battle between Vice-President Al Gore and Texas Governor George W Bush to succeed him, President Bill Clinton called a media conference at the White House this morning to stress the point that he was still very much the President-Erect.

LOS ANGELES: American researchers say the uncertain outcome of the recent US presidential election has caused an upsurge in whingeing among non-voters.
All major polling companies have reported a sharp rise in complaining, whining, and bitching by people who didn’t vote in the presidential poll.
A spokesman for Gallup Polls Ltd said non-voters traditionally complained the longest and loudest about the political system.
“In all previous elections they consistently return a high whingeing factor, generally measured by responses such as ‘I can’t be bothered voting’, or ‘I can’t bring myself to vote for any of the candidates or parties’, or ‘It’s my democratic right to not vote’,” the spokesman said.
“But since the Gore versus Bush battle has dragged on, non-voters have turned even more whiney.
“Now they are basically saying ‘I told you so’, or ‘I’m glad I didn’t waste my time voting’.”