Legislating

--Taiwan -- National Assembly: Several screaming, kicking, scratching and spitting matches erupted between female members last summer. One involved accusations that a member had distracted male colleagues with short skirts and visible panties. Another, above, boiled up during a constitutional debate.

--Israel -- Knesset: During a December debate, Foreign Minister Shimon Peres expressed mild disapproval of the biblical King David's ethics (he slept with Bathsheba, a married woman, and arranged to have her husband killed). Peres' comments outraged members of religious parties. One shouted, "Shut up! You will not give out grades to King David!" and physically menaced Peres; another was so upset he had to be treated for high blood pressure. (A year earlier a Labor Party member had set off a similar fracas by suggesting King David was bisexual.)

--Italy -- Chamber of Deputies: A Green Party member, accusing the government of rigging Italy's broadcasting regulations, so provoked Deputies of the neo- Fascist National Alliance that they started kicking and pummeling him, above, right. He was unhurt, but a colleague took a punch to the head and was sent to the infirmary.