World Vignettes

A red satin Cheung-Sam dress, which Geri wore when she met South African President Nelson Mandela in November last year, and a pair of platform shoes were estimated to be worth Å“3,000. The Union Jack dress, which she promised to personally deliver to the buyer, had an estimated price tag of Å“8,000. A beaded white evening gown and coat worn when Halliwell was presented to Queen Elizabeth II at the 1997 royal command performance is expected to fetch at least Å“1,000.

Halliwell, who had a benign lump removed from her breast at 18, wants all the proceeds to go to the Sargent cancer care for children charity.

Lennon daughter

LONDON: A German woman studying art in the English city of Liverpool has told Britain’s BBC radio that she is the illegitimate daughter of late Beatle John Lennon. The 32-year-old woman, who asked that her name be kept secret, said she had a German birth certificate stating that her father was John Winston Lennon of Weybridge, Surrey. Lennon’s uncle Charlie, 80, who lives in Liverpool, said she pays him visits. One of the late pop star’s legitimate sons, Julian Lennon, 35, was described as open-minded about her claim, which comes only days after a Liverpool woman emerged as Lennon’s lost half-sister.

Spitting contest

CIEZA (SPAIN): An office worker has spat an olive pit more than 21 metres in a record-breaking gust of lung power.

Mariano Martinez Bejar, 32, emerged victorious from ten finalists who had been weeded down from an original field of 94 contestants in the fourth annual olive-pit spitting contest in this town in southeastern Spain.

Jaws dropped when Martinez let loose with a pulmonary blast that smashed the previous record of 15 metres. “You don’t see someone with lungs like that every day,” said Manolo Egia, another finalist. The competition is a promotional event sponsored by local olive growers.

Titanic video

LITTLE ROCK (ARKANSAS): Even the biggest Titanic fans would have trouble pulling this off: Sitting in a warehouse and watching the video of the Oscar-winning epic all day, every day. That’s what workers must do at Deluxe Video Services Inc., which since May has been making millions of copies of Titanic for Paramount to release next week. Security is so tight that, at any time, the company knows where each copy is. Visitors leaving the plant are searched.