After 12 years, you can forget about pants too

THE sartorial habits of Natan Sharansky, a key member of the Israeli summit team, raised eyebrows in the White House, a Tel Aviv newspaper said.

Maariv said President Clinton asked the former Soviet dissident, now the Trade and Industry Minister, why he had come to the White House without wearing a tie. Mr Sharansky responded without batting an eyelid: "There is a law in Israel, according to which anyone who was incarcerated in a Russian prison for longer than eight years is exempt from putting on a tie." Mr Sharansky had been a guest of the former Soviet Gulag for ten years.