World Vignettes -- More US men collecting alimony

Friday, August 1 1997

World Vignettes -- More US men collecting alimony

WASHINGTON, July 31: While it is mostly women who get alimony in divorce, the number of men being awarded alimony has gone up from 3 per cent five years ago to five to ten per cent, according to latest estimates by divorce lawyers.

The trend is attributed to the fact that more and more women are getting good jobs. A 68-year-old food service manager in Atlanta, Neil Ainslie, who expects to collect alimony, said, ``When we got married in 1954, it was unheard of for a man to get alimony. My wife, who inherited a substantial sum of money from her family over the past decade, tried to make me feel guilty. I supported her for 37 years. I don't feel guilty at all,'' he added.

Sojourner fixed

PASADENA: The Mars Sojourner rover stalled on its way to a rock nicknamed Mermaid, but fixed itself by reversing a little, engineers at the jet propulsion laboratory said.
Rover handlers guessed that a Martian pebble jammed in the cleats of Sojourner's left front wheel yesterday and backing up released the pebble and set the wheel in motion again. The rover relayed back to Earth a picture of the pathfinder landing module beside a craggy boulder called Mini Matterhorn. Engineers rated the photo ``spectacular''.
Cockroach woes
BEIJING: Fed up with infestations, China's leaders plan a cockroach extermination campaign in Beijing, a local newspaper reported today. The ``Everyone Get Busy, Wipe Out Cockroaches'' campaign is at the centre of a city-wide clean-up that has swept away many streetside markets and led the city to upgrade its trash collection system. By mid-August, each work unit in the city is expected to spray insecticide twice in an effort to vanquish the pests, particularly from restaurants and other establishments known to be infested. The southern city of Guangzhou has declared a similar campaign, in keeping with a nationwide ``spiritual civilisation'' crusade to make China a cleaner place to live.
Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.