News In Brief

WE'D RATHER YOU DIDN'T

You know those beautiful sand castles people build at the beach - the ones with the ramparts and turrets? You won't see any being made at the Peace Village day camp in coastal Lincoln City, Ore. Reason: They're violent. Violent? Well, yes - at least in comparison with the conflict-resolution techniques and Chinese qi gong meditation rituals taught to the six- to 14-year-old campers. Competitive games also are discouraged. But it's OK to build ambitious things out of sand, as long as they're villages, which are deemed nonmilitaristic.

THEY'RE HIP, DON'T YA KNOW

"The response has been really good," Howie Nicholsby said. Which is nice for him, as long as he's daring to challenge perhaps the proudest of Scottish traditions - the tartan kilt. The young designer at Edinburgh's Geoffrey Highland Crafts makes his out of fake leather and wet-look polyvinyl chloride, some even in a leopard print. And, since the accent is totally modern, they also feature pockets for cellular phones and credit cards.

Young 'friends of Bill' rate Clinton the world's No. 1 VIP

Who's the most important person in the world? That's the question children aged 6 to 14 were asked in a survey conducted by The World Almanac for Kids. Readers were offered the opportunity to win prizes for explaining their choices. Among the diverse roster of VIPs: civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks, astronaut Neil Armstrong, "Harry Potter" author J.K. Rowling, slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, TV show hostess Rosie O'Donnell, and soccer star Mia Hamm, who edged out God by a small margin. Despite a reputation tarnished by scandals, President Clinton's status as "the ruler of the free world" led the most respondents to choose him as the most important person. Top vote-getters and their percentages :

President Clinton 30%

Pope John Paul II 20.6%

"My mom" 20.4%

"My dad" 15.8%

Bill Gates 15%

Associated Press

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