WASHINGTON: MICKEY Mouse, the chirpy little cartoon rodent with the white gloves and big black ears, is getting ready to return to the water after many adventures on land over the past 70 years.

The Walt Disney concern, which brought the character Mickey Mouse to the large and small screen - originally as tugboat captain Steamboat Willie in 1928 - is planning to offer seven day combination holidays comprising a stay in their theme park in Orlando, Florida, and a follow-on cruise to the Bahamas. On March 12, 1998 Mickey Mouse's liner The Disney Magic is due to make its maiden voyage, sailing a route from Cape Canaveral, Florida, to the Bahamas and to Disney's private island of Castaway Cay.

Thai spinsters

BANGKOK: The percentage of Thai women between the ages of 30 and 34 who have never married has doubled in the past 30 years and is twice as high as in some other Asian countries, the English-language nation newspaper said today. About 9 per cent of Thai women between the ages of 30 and 34 are single, twice the percentage of similar age groups in Indonesia and South Korea, and also higher than in Japan.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.