The hospital error came to light after the parents of one baby decided to undergo a DNA after being subjected to bar room gossips regarding their daughter who do not resemble any of them.

However, the DNA tests proved that neither the father nor the mother wife could be the parents. The other couple is now undergoing test.

Records show that both Nikola and Veronika were born on December 9 last year in a clinic in Trebic, 100 miles south of the Czech capital, Prague.

But several months after Nikola’s birth, Libor Broza and his wife Jaroslava Trojanova decided to undergo a DNA test, because they thought their daughter did not resemble any of them.

The test proved them correct: Nikola was not theirs.

Last week, the couple met Jan and Jaroslava Cermak and their daughter Veronika, who also agreed to undergo testing.

However, even with the absence of the test result, both couples have already agreed to swap their daughters before the end of the year.

“Of course, we are happy, but on the other hand, we also feel terrible,” Jaroslava Trojanova.

Both the police and the hospital are investigating the case, calling it a “regrettable case”.

The two couples are planning to sue the hospital, with Broza and Trojanova planning to seek some USD510,000 in damages.

Source: WayOdd

The index, crafted by Dr. Romulo A. Virola, Secretary General of the National Statistical Coordination Board, was posted on the Board’s website on Tuesday.

Family ranked first as the most important source of happiness, with a score of 9.45 on a scale of 10. Health came next with 8.95, while religion ranked third with 8.59.

Other important sources of happiness include friends (8.57), financial security (8.3), education (8.25), love life (8.2) and work (7.94).

On a list of 95 countries, the Philippines is on the “middle-range” of the World Database of Happiness Index.

From 1995 to 2005, the country’s average rating of 6.4 placed it in about the same bracket as India (6.2), Iran, (6.0), Poland (5.9) and South Korea (5.8.) The world index is currently topped by Denmark, with a rating of 8.2.

The Philippine Happiness Index is not easily dismissed, coming from someone who holds a Ph.D. in statistics from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, United States, and who has taught mathematics and statistics at the University of the Philippines. Virola is also a past president of the Philippine Statistical Association.

Co-written with Jessamyn O. Encarnacion, the index was based on a nonrandom poll of 167 respondents conducted during the National Convention on Statistics held on Oct. 1-2, according to the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

It was “quite surprising” that sex was not an important source of happiness, and that at 14th place, it was ranked among the five least important, said Virola who is also chairman of the Statistical Research and Training Center in Manila.

The Philippine Happiness Index is based on the premise that economic progress and happiness are not synonymous, Virola said. But along with standard statistical queries, the index factored in friends, love life and sex life.

According to the index, politics is the least important source of happiness. Other unimportant domains are cultural activities, community and volunteer work and government. Leisure and sports – also surprisingly – is the 6th least important domain.

“Respondents derive very little happiness, or maybe much unhappiness, from politics,” Virola said. “Politicians may be amusing but they apparently do not make people happy.”

Other findings: many consider the enjoyment of sex not bad. Six out of 10 respondents think that progress is synonymous with happiness. Women are happier than men. And happiness rises with income.

Virola now wants to link the Philippine Happiness Index with a Philippine Economic Index and come up with a Philippine Gross National Happiness Index.

Source: WayOdd