10 THINGS

10 THINGS WE DIDN'T KNOW THIS TIME LAST WEEK

Snippets harvested from the week's news, chopped, sliced and diced for your weekend convenience.

1. In colonial America, servants negotiated agreements that they would not be forced to eat lobster more than twice a week.

2. The daily cost of water for the average household is 68p - what it would cost to buy a 2-litre bottle of Evian in a supermarket.

3. Bill Gates does not have an iPod.

4. The majority of those living alone are aged over 65, particularly widowed women.

5. There used to be signs on buses in the UK warning against spitting to guard against the spread of TB.

6. Carousel fraud, a VAT scam in which products are circulated around fake companies, is so widespread that it costs EU countries the equivalent of the VAT take of France.

7. Des Lynam saw Laurel and Hardy on stage at the Brighton Hippodrome in 1951 aged eight.

8. Rather than abstaining, an MP can vote both for and against a motion at the same time.

9. Prince Charles may not live the most carbon-neutral of lifestyles, but he does drive a hybrid car.

10. And he wrote a fan letter to Jamie Oliver after the TV chef's School Dinners series.

BBC NEWS MAGAZINE