Least Corrupt Nation

A Connecticut man who thought he might get a thank you from his local police department could instead find himself $100 poorer all for trying to be a good citizen. Larry Tarducci of Branford was concerned about the safety of the youngsters in his neighborhood among them his own because of speeding motorists. He asked the town to post diamond-shaped Slow, Children Playing signs. Answer: No. So Tarducci bought and posted two of the signs himself. He was ordered to take them down or pay a fine. The warnings, said the traffic-control commission, aren't enforceable. It would, however, be OK to relocate the signs to his front lawn, 10 feet from the street.

On the subject of traffic control, motorists in Charleston, W.Va., were inconvenienced by what you might call a chocolate drop. A truck carrying 25 tons of pudding cups overturned on I-64, spilling them onto the pavement. No injuries, but the goo took seven hours to clean up. Yes, some in the crew admitted it was the sweetest job they'd ever had.

Least Corrupt Nation? Survey Says It's Denmark Transparency International includes 85 countries in its 1998 index of corruption, based on surveys of experts and the general public. A ranking of 10 indicates a country is perceived to be highly clean; a 0 indicates it is viewed as highly corrupt.

Cameroon is ranked last, with a score of 1.4. Russia is No. 76, with a score of 2.4. The US and Austria, each with a score of 7.5, share 17th place. The 10 nations rated as least corrupt and their scores:

1. Denmark 10.0 2. Finland 9.6 3. Sweden 9.5 4. New Zealand 9.4 5. Iceland 9.3 6. Canada 9.2 7. Singapore 9.1 8. Netherlands 9.0 (tie) Norway 9.0 10. Switzerland 8.9