MOSCOW MIGHT MOVE MADGE

Curious rumblings from Moscow, where - hot on the heels of the supposed kidnap threat - organisers of Madonna's gig there are talking about shifting the venue.

The reason being given is the fear that, if she plays the planned venue of Lomonosov University, people may lean out of nearby student flats trying to watch. And then they might fall out, and hurt themselves. (Or, possibly, forced to listen to Madonna going on for hours, the flat-dwellers may throw themselves out their windows in despair. Or, just maybe, they might start selling tickets to watch from the balconies for less than the ticket price.)

There are fears students could fall out of windows in their attempts to watch the concert, said Mr Nikolai Koulikov, head of Moscow's security department.

"The question of where the Madonna concert will eventually take place has still not been resolved," he told the Agence France Presse news agency.

We're sure this is in no way a prelude to the cancellation of the concert after the explosions in a Moscow market this week. However, if they can't find another venue, why, they may have to call the whole thing off.

However, Mr Koulikov said there were no plans to cancel the concert despite a bomb attack on a Moscow market on Monday that claimed 10 lives.

"Life must go on despite these explosions," he said.

So, life has to carry on despite bombers killing ten people at random, but life musn't go on if there's an outside risk of a student possibly leaning too far out of their windows. You've got to love the Soviet risk analysis.

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