UP THE POLE

The impoverished Central Asian nation of Tajikistan has announced plans to build the world's tallest flagpole.

At 540ft it would narrowly outstrip current record-holder, Azerbaijan's 531-footer.

The flagpole, outside the Palace of Nations in the centre of the capital Dushanbe, is to be completed in March.

HIGH SPIRIT

A Mexican distiller has produced what it hopes will become the world's most expensive tequila, in a platinum and diamond-studded bottle.

Hacienda La Capilla's 1.3-litre ceramic bottle has a 5lb layer of platinum and more than 4,000 diamonds totalling 328 carats.

The company already holds the Guinness record for the most expensive tequila with a bottle that sold for 225,000 dollars in 1996 but hopes the new one will fetch 3.5 million dollars.

ACADEMIC VIEWPOINT

A tiny camera has been surgically implanted into the back of a New York University professor's head in the name of art.

Visual artist Wafaa Bilal had the surgery for a project called "The 3rd I", commissioned by a new museum in the Gulf state of Qatar.

The Iraqi-born artist will wear the camera for a year and capture images at one-minute intervals that will be transmitted to monitors at the museum.

DOUGH!

Robbers held up the owners of a New York pizzeria and then fled with a bag full of dough - the kind that crusts are made of.

Police said Salvatore LaRosa and an accomplice followed the owners of Brothers Pizzeria and demanded the men turn over a bag they believed held the day's proceeds.

But instead it was full of pizza dough.