World Notes NIGERIA

Nigerians were warned. It only takes a touch, and you've lost them: your wallet from the back of your trousers or your manhood from the front. The rumor about vanishing male genitalia started sweeping Lagos two weeks ago, and by last week the capital was in a panic. Frightened mobs lynched or beat to death at least a dozen suspected organ robbers in crowded markets and bus stations, where being jostled by strangers is a fact of life. Nigerians were convinced that magicians could remove the male jewels at a touch, making them reappear in Lagos' witchcraft markets on sale for thousands of dollars.

The police tried to use the newspapers to restore calm, explaining that the rumors were only the street thieves' ruse for stealing. They even took some of the purported victims to hospitals to prove to them that everything between their legs had been preserved intact.

When that failed to stem the panic, the frustrated police decided to enforce a curfew along the road that passes in front of the presidential offices, thus protecting Nigeria's most prominent men from any magician, including one tempted to use the commotion to launch a coup.