■ UNITED STATES
Sex change tax disputed
A Boston man who underwent a sex-change operation is suing the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), saying the US$25,000 in medical expenses should have been deducted from her taxes. In a potentially precedent-setting dispute now before the US Tax Court, the IRS argues that the procedure was cosmetic, not a medical necessity. Advocates for the transgendered hope the tax agency will treat sex-change operations as a deductible medical procedure. The case is set to go to trial July 24. Rhiannon O'Donnabhain began seeing a therapist in 1996, who eventually diagnosed her with gender-identity disorder. Five years later, her psychotherapist recommended sex-change surgery, finding it was medically necessary. A psychologist who examined O'Donnabhain agreed.
■ UNITED STATES
Waitress gets US$10,000 tip
The personal touch earned a waitress a US$10,000 tip. Jessica Osborne, 20, received the gift from a family of regulars at the Pizza Hut in Angola, Indiana, where she works. The family -- a mother and two sons -- requested Osborne as usual and chatted about their lives. She said she told them how she had started college twice but had to drop out because she did not have enough money. They returned last week before moving away and handed Osborne a check from an education fund they had set up after a death in the family. Osborne said she is now considering where to study photography and journalism.
■ UNITED KINGDOM
Chastity ring still banned
A teenage girl banned from wearing a chastity ring in class lost a legal challenge against her former school at the High Court on Monday. Lydia Playfoot, 16, had argued that the ban at the Millais School in Horsham, about 65km south of London, was an "unlawful interference" with her right to express her Christian faith. But deputy High Court judge Michael Supperstone disagreed with her, and supported her school's contention that the ring was not an integral part of the Christian faith. Playfoot wears a ring as a sign of her commitment to abstinence from sex until marriage. The school had said the ring fell outside its uniform policy, which makes exceptions for Muslims wearing head scarves and Sikhs wearing steel bracelets.
■ ARGENTINA
Minister resigns over cash
Economy Minister Felisa Miceli resigned after a prosecutor ordered her to testify about US$64,000 in cash that was found in a bag in her office bathroom, the government said. Late last month, police conducting a routine security check found the cash in a brown paper bag in a bathroom cabinet inside Miceli's offices. She has previously said her brother loaned her most of the money so she could buy a house.
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