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For vacationers in the United Kingdom seeking a tan, there awaits an unfortunate surprise in the sands of the country's most popular holiday beach resorts. Recent lab analyses of the sand at three resorts revealed what researchers described as "stomach-churning doses of E. coli bacteria."

Microbiologists working for Holiday Which? magazine dropped bread rolls buttered side down on to the sands of Blackpool and Lancashire and then transported them in sterile bags to a laboratory where they were tested. The samples possessed high levels of E. Coli and other bacteria. The cause? Sewage in the water.

Dombolo: The forbidden dance

The government of Cameroon wants youth to just say no...to Dombolo. The general manager of Cameroon Radio/Television, Gervais Mendo Ze, banned Dombolo, a controversial Congolese rumba dance, to "safeguard the good morals and culture of Cameroonian society from foreign invasion." He believes the "suggestive body wriggling" would "encourage immorality in our society, especially among the youths."

Surprisingly, many musicians are for the ban. Makossa musician Francois Misse Ngoh said, "If Dombolo invaded our musical scene it is because our music has deteriorated over the years," he said. "Now someone comes up with some bla-bla noise and calls it music."

Protecting the porcelain gods

With stricter caning laws taking care of crime, what is the next issue at the top of the Singapore government's agenda? Dirty toilets. Commissioner of Public Health Daniel Wang is a man with a mission: to scrub out public toilet humor once and for all.

During the press conference at the campaign launch, he expressed his hope that public toilets would become clean places. "Clean toilets are something that we really want to see in two, five, 10 years down the road so that we have really first-class, clean public toilets and nobody will make jokes about public toilets in Singapore anymore." Flush.

—Compiled by Sheela V. Pai from The Independent, The Namibian, and The Straits Times.

JULIA TIERNAN/YH QUARTER CALL: Students no longer have to scrounge for change with new computerized laundry machines that make a Yale ID the k ey to clean clothes.

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