* Knockout: Former heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad...

* Knockout: Former heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali is promoting a new cologne, which, in typically modest fashion, bears his name. “It’s the greatest,” he told shoppers in a Dallas store. “I predict I’ll sell more cologne than anyone else in the world. Even Calvin Klein will back up.”

Fast workers: A trio of burglars stole an official limousine of French first lady Danielle Mitterrand and used it in a string of thefts in the Biarritz region, police said Tuesday. The dark-blue Renault 25, which was to collect the French president’s wife from Biarritz airport and take her to their country home, was stolen from a hotel lot Sunday. By the time it was recovered, the Elysee Palace car had carried booty from thefts of two supermarkets, a clothes boutique, a restaurant, an electric-appliance shop and a town hall. The thieves got away.

Novel solution: Media magnate Ted Turner is offering a $500,000 prize for a novel that promotes solutions to the world’s problems. The winner of the Turner Tomorrow Award also will receive a hardcover publishing contract guaranteeing a minimum printing of 50,000 copies and a $50,000 promotion campaign. The book also likely would become a TV movie. “The great minds of today need to focus on the problems of global significance . . . “ Turner said. “We’re floundering as a species right now with piecemeal solutions.”

Bell ringer: A telephone number used by author Stephen King in his book “Dark Half” has led to a flood of calls to the state police station in Orono, Me. “When I came to that part in the book, I thought, ‘Well, I’m using the Maine state police in Orono, I’ll use the right number,”’ said King, who lives in Bangor. King said he used the number without realizing the effect and has apologized. Police say no harm has been done.