19 November 2007: Just Desserts?

With people around the world trying to live on less than one dollar a day the recent announcement by a New York restaurant that it was offering an ice-cream sundae that cost $1000, and another desert that cost $25,000 ,was considered by many to be a bit tasteless.

So its critics will perhaps feel that the restaurant has got its just deserts. It has been shut down by health officials due to an infestation of mice and cockroaches.

Serendipity 3 on the Upper East Side failed its second consecutive health inspection in a month after inspectors found a live mouse, mouse droppings in multiple places, flies and dozens of live cockroaches.

"We're rectifying it as quickly as we can," said the owner.