World Briefs

At Buns and Guns you can order a Kalashnikov sandwich from a bullet-shaped menu, prepared by chefs in military fatigues with the roar of explosions as background music.

This new fast food restaurant in Beirut's southern suburbs, where the Hizbollah movement holds sway, was the brainchild of co-owner Ali Hammoud. He said the war theme was a novel concept that had nothing to do with Lebanon's bloody recent history.

Guns, bullets and pictures of other weapons decorate the interior. The slogan "A sandwich can kill you", with a picture of a gun superimposed on a burger, is displayed outside. Completing the war motif, sandbags surround the outdoor seating area.

Key to sweet sound of a Stradivarius

Researchers using a medical scanner have worked out why a Stradivarius violin sounds so good - it is because of the remarkably even density of the wood.

For the past 300 years, musicians and scientists have puzzled over the unparalleled quality of classical Cremonese violins made by Italian masters like Antonio Stradivari and Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesu.

Now a Dutch doctor and a violin maker from Arkansas think they have cracked the mystery after comparing five classical and eight modern violins in a computed tomography (CT) scanner normally used to examine patients.

They found no significant differences between the median densities of the modern and the antique violins but did discover far less variation between wood grains in the old ones.

Estate agents lose out in sleep stakes

Estate agents top the list of sleep-deprived professionals due in part to credit crunch worries and a weakening housing market, a survey of British workers published yesterday found.

Estate agents manage to sleep just five hours and 50 minutes a night, the survey of 4,000 workers commissioned by the budget hotel chain Travelodge said.

Lorry and taxi drivers, hit by soaring fuel prices, sleep just six hours and 16 minutes a night, ahead of bankers, who average six hours and 23 minutes of shut eye.

Health professionals recommend eight hours of sleep.

The survey asked how much sleep participants got each night and the reasons why. More than a third blamed the pressures of work in the current financial climate for their sleeplessness.

The poll found media professionals get the most sleep, the report showed, remaining in the land of nod for seven hours and 12 minutes, while 52 per cent of workers take time off work or use their weekends to catch up on missed sleep.

World's happiest country: Denmark

Denmark, with its democracy, social equality and peaceful atmosphere, is the happiest country in the world, researchers said yesterday.

Zimbabwe, torn by political and social strife, is the least happy, while the world's richest nation, the United States, ranks 16th.

Overall, the world is getting happier, according to the US government-funded World Values Survey, done regularly by a global network of social scientists.

Truck crash stirs up 12 million angry bees

How do you deal with millions of upset bees? Very carefully.

A truck containing 330 crates of bees, about 12 million of them altogether, overturned on a major highway near the town of St Leonard, New Brunswick, in Eastern Canada on Monday, setting free thousands of irritated stinging insects. Police sealed off the vehicle and called for expert help with the millions that were left inside.

A team of beekeepers arrived and poured smoke into the truck to calm down the bees, which were moved later in the day. Police said there was no general danger to the public.

Bars distracting Chinese soldiers

A Chinese military officer has written to the top Communist Party mouthpiece newspaper complaining that saunas, karaoke bars and dance halls sprouting near his base are distracting soldiers.

The base was built in a remote location at Dandong, on the sensitive North Korean border, to avoid such distractions, the officer, who gave his name as Li Xianghui, told the People's Daily.

"Having entertainment venues around the base affects the mental stability of the troops, and causes huge management problems," the officer said, without elaborating.