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WHERE ARE YOU OFF TO NOW?

Police in central Paris might just have interrupted a world record crime wave one night early last week. In 85 minutes flat - that is, before the gendarmes tracked down and arrested him - a single beret-wearing suspect had held up 10 businesses - the front desks of five hotels, four drug stores, and a sushi restaurant. And all the while brandishing an apparently unloaded handgun. So, why say interrupted? Because after all that effort, the robberies netted him barely $1,000.

Then there's the case of Gunars Sulcs. He was stripped of his license and now awaits a court's decision on how he must perform the 250 hours of community service he was sentenced to for his second drunk-driving conviction in less than a year. Sulcs is noteworthy because he happens to be the mayor of Pelci, a town in western Latvia. A leading option: obliging him to sweep the town's streets himself.

Of the prominent people on the world political scene, who would make the best corporate chief executive? The answer, according to a survey of top executives themselves, 150 of whom responded to a survey conducted by McLean, Va.-based researchers Wirthlin Worldwide: a tie between Dick Cheney (who has been one - at the oil-industry service company Halliburton) and Colin Powell. The poll, commissioned by the Council of Public Relations Firms, also rated communication and motivational skills as the most important qualities for a leader, above openness, hard work, and compassion. The list of candidates, and how each fared:

Vice President Cheney 23%

Secretary of State Powell 23%

President Bush 15%

Rudolph Giuliani, former New York mayor 15%

Defense Secretary Rumsfeld 9%

British Prime Minister Blair 9%

Former President Clinton 3%

Former Vice President Gore 0%

- Businesswire