The New Year in Brief

Police Academy

For the first time in a decade, Afghanistan's national police academy is training female officers to serve in the country's capital, Kabul.

Around 60 women are expected to graduate in two months and will be deployed across the city at checkpoints, at the airport, in jails and as criminal investigators.

Women have slowly begun to trickle back to work since the overthrow of the Taliban.

Kabul's police academy officially reopened in August after it was refurbished with aid from Germany, which sent 48 new patrol cars - mostly green and white mini-vans - and a dozen officers to help train the Afghan police force.

Struggling artist

Since almost 200 people were killed in the bombings in October, Balinese painter Ketut Suryatmaja has been struggling to make ends meet. She cannot bear the thought of celebrating the new year.

She said: "My paintings usually sold well, especially in December. I haven't sold a single painting since the bombing. I don't want to even talk about the new year."

Nyoman Parta, a student, fretted about Bali's future: "I'm still pessimistic. I doubt many tourists will visit Bali in the future."

But one tourist who had dared to travel, Dutchman Gerard Pedroli, 48, said: "Don't be afraid of terrorists, this can happen anywhere, any time."

Flower power

China touts its space programme as evidence of growing national power but it has also yielded a more tender offshoot - prettier flowers. Exposure to weightlessness caused 200 peony seeds carried in China's Shenzhou III unmanned spacecraft to grow into plants which produced unusually large and brightly coloured flowers.

China's latest unmanned capsule, Shenzhou IV, blasted off before dawn on Monday in what could be the final test launch before a manned flight. China could become the third nation, after the Soviet Union and the US, to put a human in space.

Plastic nation

For many, it is a nation associated with producing cheap, plastic goods. But Taiwan has banned thousands of businesses, including supermarkets and restaurants, from using plastic bowls, bags and utensils.

The government was forced to take action after mountains of plasticware began piling up at rubbish dumps as well as littering streets and clogging sewage systems.

Disposable plasticware has long been popular in Taiwan because many customers don't trust restaurants to clean dishes and utensils properly. Government officials estimate plastic utensils and bags account for 60,000 tonnes of waste annually.

Sound of war

Andrew Lloyd-Webber has halted his multimillion-pound production of the Sound of Music amid fears that conflict in the Middle East could hit West End box office takings.

Actors and actresses auditioning for the play said they had been told the musical was being postponed because of the effect unrest in the region could have.

One cast hopeful said: "Rehearsals were supposed to begin in March but then we were told that Andrew Lloyd-Webber was going to postpone it because of worries he had that a war might affect sales."

A spokesman for Lord Lloyd-Webber confirmed the revival had been put on ice - but said it was due to the quest for a bigger theatre venue.

Food and drink

More than one in five American adults could be classified as obese in 2001, an increase of almost 6%. And more than one in four Americans engage in bouts of binge drinking - defined as five or more drinks at one sitting with the goal of getting drunk - up 35% from 1995.

"I guess you could say we're fat and drunk," said Timothy Naimi, a researcher at the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. "We're a society that is somewhat taken with excesses."