Dead Rich

According to Forbes annual list, Kurt Cobain this year knocked Elvis Presley off the top of the World's top dead earners list.

Cobain, who shot himself in the head in 1994, earned $50 million between October 2005 and October 2006, according to Forbes, largely because his widow Courtney Love sold off his Nirvana song catalogue to New York publishers PrimeWave.

This is the first time Kurt Cobain has appeared on the list in its six years. Prior to that, Elvis Presley has topped the chart, earning in the region of $42million. This is largely through licensing deals of the deceased celebrities' work or images.

The only woman to rank in the top 13 was Marilyn Monroe. The actress, who died of an overdose in 1962, pulled in $8 million, good for ninth place.

Here's a rundown of the top 10 (the complete list is at Forbes.com):

1. Kurt Cobain, $50 million
2. Elvis Presley, $42 million
3. Charles Schulz, $35 million
4. John Lennon, $24 million
5. Albert Einstein, $20 million>
6. Andy Warhol, $19 million
7. Dr. Seuss (Theodor Geisel), $10 million
8. Ray Charles, $10 million
9. Marilyn Monroe, $8 million
10. Johnny Cash, $8 million

You're Nicked

Stories like this are manna from heaven. A senior police officer was arrested for using his mobile phone while driving his car, after being followed back to his station by an irate motorist.

Guy Darby, a chief superintendent in the Surrey police, was reprimanded by his force and ordered to pay 30 pounds (56 dollars, 45 euros), the equivalent of the penalty fine, to charity.

A motorist followed Darby to his station after the officer cut in front of him while talking on his mobile phone.

Using a mobile phone while driving has been illegal in Britain since December 2003 unless drivers have a hands-free kit.

Paris Syndrome

Here's a great story. Reuters report that psychologists have identified a condition called Paris Syndrome. Up to a dozen Japanese tourists a year suffer from the disorder, caused by the reality of Paris' scruffy streets and unfriendly locals, contrasting greatly with their romantic image of the city.

"A third of patients get better immediately, a third suffer relapses and the rest have psychoses," Yousef Mahmoudia, a psychologist at the Hotel-Dieu hospital, next to Notre Dame cathedral, told the newspaper Journal du Dimanche.

Already this year, Japan's embassy in Paris has had to repatriate at least four visitors -- including two women who believed their hotel room was being bugged and there was a plot against them.

Previous cases include a man convinced he was the French "Sun King", Louis XIV, and a woman who believed she was being attacked with microwaves, the paper cited Japanese embassy official Yoshikatsu Aoyagi as saying.