■ Australia
Wine to be dumped
Australian wine growers plan to dump seven million bottles of wine after binging on red grapes. A surfeit of grapes causing a glut in the local market has left producers with an estimated five million liters of red wine stored in tanks that need to be emptied before next year's vintage is collected late next month. It could be turned into vinegar or poured away. Sarah Dent, chief executive of the Wine Industry Association of Western Australia, said the amount of land planted with vines had increased by 165 percent in the four years from 1998.
■ United States
Director plugs meditation
As director of such dark films as Blue Velvet and Mulholland Drive and the TV series Twin Peaks, David Lynch seems an unlikely leader for a world peace campaign based on mass meditation. But Lynch has joined a Washington real estate developer and a former magazine executive to try to raise US$1 billion to bankroll a foundation meant to supply instructors in Transcendental Meditation to ease the planet's stress. "I would just encourage people to look more deeply into this, and the giggles go away, unless it's just a giggle of pure happiness at the beauty of this -- because this plan has been tested ... Every time it's been tested it's reduced crime and violence. It's a real thing and it could be put in place this year and bring peace to Earth," he said.
■ Germany
Cheating is the norm
Almost every second German cheats on or has cheated on their partner, according to a new survey.
A survey of 1,059 men and women aged between 20 and 60 conducted last month by the Hamburg-based GEWIS research institute for Stern magazine showed 51 percent of men and 43 percent of women said they had cheated at least once on their partner. Of the self-confessed cheats, some 61 percent of women and 47 percent of men said they cheated because of a lack of love or interest shown by their partner.
■ France
`Doggy bottles' popular
Restaurants have started offering diners a "doggy bag" for any leftover tipple to stem a drop in wine sales as drink-driving controls get tougher. Wine sales in French restaurants have dropped by 10 percent to 15 percent in the last year as the government cracks down on bad drivers, said Bordeaux wine council CIVB, which launched the initiative. Restaurants across the country are now offering to repackage any unfinished wine bottles by recorking the wine using a special pump to extract air, ensuring it keeps for several days, and slipping the bottle into a bag.
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