News In Brief

STOP! YOU'RE MAKING A MESS Ever been to an art show and thought you could improve what you were looking at? Then picture the scene in London's Tate Gallery Sunday. Two men apparently decided "My Bed," an exhibit whose soiled sheets and clothing, empty liquor bottles, and other discarded items make it what even gallery officials admit is undignified, needed their touch. So they climbed on it, picked up the pillows, and hit each other until they were arrested. An official said the exhibit, a nominee for the $33,000 Turner Prize for young British artists, has been "restored" to its original condition.

A DETOUR IS IN EFFECT In southeastern England, a new "Pooh sticks bridge" is being built at a cost of almost $76,000. Ninety-two years of foot traffic wore out the original near author A.A. Milne's farm, but its specifications remain on file. Winnie the Pooh and Christopher Robin played on the span in Milne's stories.

Blair, Gates head 'power list' in ranking by British panel The computer industry more than made its mark this year in the second annual "power list" picked by a panel of British experts and unveiled last weekend in London by Channel 4 and The Observer newspaper. Prime Minister Tony Blair tops the list, but right behind is Microsoft chairman Bill Gates. Intel chairman Andy Grove is No. 41, Amazon boss Jeff Bezos is No. 55, and Yahoo! chief executive Tim Koogle is No. 62. The top 10:

1. Prime Minister Tony Blair

2. Bill Gates, Microsoft

3. Gordon Brown, Britain's chancellor of the exchequer

4. President Clinton

5. Alastair Campbell, Blair's press secretary

6. Rupert Murdoch, News Corporation chairman/chief executive

7. Alan Greenspan, chairman of the US Federal Reserve

8. Eddie George, governor of the Bank of England

9. Jonathan Powell, Blair's chief of staff

10. Romano Prodi, president of the European Commission

- Associated Press

(c) Copyright 1999. The Christian Science Publishing Society