From correspondents in Los Angeles - August 10, 2006

WHEN Barbra Streisand sings, the cash register rings at Bill Clinton's favorite charity.

With a gift of $US1 million ($1.3 million), Streisand has selected the former president's Climate Change Initiative as the first recipient to benefit from the millions she has pledged to charitable causes generated by her upcoming national concert tour.

The gift helped make Streisand the leading contributor to Mr Clinton's effort to bring together a consortium of key cities around the world to drive down greenhouse gas emissions.

Streisand recently announced that she would undertake a concert tour in October and November to help raise money for organizations dealing with environmental, women's health and educational issues.

A spokesman for Streisand said she has been funding efforts to deal with global climate change since the late 1980s.

On another note.....

One-man charity: Money for free
Posted at: 8/10/2006 - REUTERS

BERLIN • Passers-by in the western German city of Darmstadt could not believe their luck when a pensioner came out of a bank with 13,000 euros ($16,700) and started handing out the cash, authorities said yesterday.

"He sat down on a bench outside the bank from which he'd just withdrawn the money, and started giving it away," said Darmstadt police spokesman Dieter Wuest.

Police intervened after locals had alerted them to the charitable 63-year-old, who had by then given away 1,505 euros of the money he had stuffed in plastic bags and his trousers.

"He said he didn't care because he had plenty of cash," said Wuest. "He'd had a bit to drink and was in a good mood."

Officers confiscated the remaining cash and told the man to collect it when he had sobered up.

"He hasn't come back for it yet," said Wuest.