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By Compiled from wire service reports by Robert Kilborn and Kristen Broman-Worthington / September 27, 2002


If you enjoy British Broadcasting Corporation programs but happen to notice something strange about them someday soon, blame management. It seems the system has decided to try to improve morale by inviting all 25,000 of its employees to switch jobs for one day. This, "to get a better understanding of the operation." Reporter Jennie Boyd, who covers the royal family, said she wants to anchor the music review show "Top of the Pops." "Newsnight" host Jeremy Paxman has volunteered to take the place of the "tea lady" and serve beverages and snacks to his fellow workers.

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There are persistent people, and then there's Abdul Samad Moosa. He's a Dubai resident who has just received his high school diploma  on the 17th try. In the United Arab Emirates, as elsewhere, most students finish secondary school by age 18. But Moosa came up a bit short, then found himself busy with other responsibilities, such as marriage, five children, and a job in a hospital. His next goal: college, where he wants to major in information technology.

Well, no, they're not real, but they are really wealthy

Reading about the lucrative pay packages given top corporate executives who've been in the headlines lately can seem a bit unreal. So, for fun, editors at Forbes magazine attempted to calculate what the wealth would be, if it were real, of popular fictional characters from books, comics, TV, and movies. Forbes' top 10 fictional richest and their estimated net worth (in billions):

1. Santa Claus incalculable
2. Richie Rich (comic) $24.7
3. Daddy Warbucks (guardian of "Little Orphan Annie") 10.0
4. Scrooge McDuck 8.2
5. Thurston Howell III ("Gilligan's Island") 8.0
(tie) Willie Wonka ("Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory") 8.0
7. Bruce Wayne ("Batman") 6.3
8. Lex Luthor (arch-enemy of "Superman") 4.7
9. J.R. Ewing ("Dallas") 2.8
10. Auric Goldfinger (James Bond's nemesis in "Goldfinger") 1.2