Consumer magazine Which? has found that computer keyboards can be a home to bacteria that may cause food poisoning symptoms and stomach upsets. Tests made on 33 keyboards at its office here showed four posed a health risk, with one being host to five times more germs than the office's toilet seats.

A hospital in Finland is in hot water after one of its patients lodged a complaint after finding a mouse head in his plate of steamed vegetables. While the health of the patient in Joensuu, eastern Finland, whose name was withheld, had not been endangered by the dead rat, Sakari Kela, chief administrator at the Northern Karelia Central Hospital said it was "understandable that he lost his appetite. "

It's the Chinese Year of the Rat but it is unlikely the animal's status could be elevated above the sewer and loathsome level. Never mind that last year's hit film Ratatouille showed their humorous - and culinary - side and that Mickey Mouse and Tom and Jerry have been a long-time favorites.

A Manhattan restaurant, which entered the records book last week for selling the world's most expensive dessert for $25,000, was forced to shut down Thursday after city health inspectors found vermin on the premises. According to the Health Department, officials found a live mouse, mouse droppings in multiple places, flies and dozens of live cockroaches, failing Serendipity 3 on the Upper East Side its second consecutive health inspection in a month.

A woman who found a severed mouse head in a can of green beans is not biting the offer from an Arkansas company for USD100 provided she pledges not to take legal action. While the letter from Allens Inc. of Siloam Springs, Ark. , describes the offer as a "gesture of goodwill," Marianne Watson said isn't interested.