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Police nab dozens of gambling seniors in Cyprus Skip related content

Police in Cyprus detained dozens of elderly women for gambling, a popular but banned past-time on the east Mediterranean island. Police alerted by neighbours found 42 women playing poker and gin rummy at a venue in the coastal town of Limassol. Most were aged between 75 and 85, with the eldest 95.

Italy finds proposal to skip lunch hard to digest

ROME (Reuters) - Food-loving Italy responded with indignation on Tuesday to a minister's comments that lunchbreaks -- still a sit-down ritual for many Italian workers -- are bad for waistlines and the economy, and should be skipped. While many European peers nibble a sandwich at their desk, most Italian workers still retire en masse to a "tavola calda" (buffet restaurant) or a works canteen for a slap-up meal, often an hour-long affair involving pasta or meat, a vegetable dish, fruit and coffee.

Houston, we have a baby

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - Shuttle Atlantis astronaut Randy Bresnik awoke early on Sunday to a much-anticipated call that his new daughter had been born. Bresnik's wife, Rebecca, gave birth to Abigail Mae Bresnik just after midnight. At the time, Bresnik was in orbit 220 miles above Earth with 11 astronauts and cosmonauts aboard the International Space Station.

Don't kiss Santa, he may have the flu

BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Santa Claus should avoid kissing children and shaking their hands to prevent spreading the flu and should get vaccinated against the illness, Hungary's state health authority said. In a recommendation issued over the weekend and posted on its official website www.antsz.hu, the authority did not ban traditional Santa Claus activities but warned of increased risks of contagion due to a nationwide flu epidemic.

New EU president wins fans in Japan -- as a poet

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Herman Van Rompuy, the European Union's new president, may not be very well known around the world but he's already winning fans in Japan -- as a poet rather than a politician. Belgium's low-key prime minister is fond of writing haiku -- three-line Japanese poems of just 17 syllables -- and is building a reputation with Japanese poets less than 24 hours after he got the newly-created job.

New fossils reveal a world full of crocodiles

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - New fossils unearthed in what is now the Sahara desert reveal a once-swampy world divided up among a half-dozen species of unusual and perhaps intelligent crocodiles, researchers reported on Thursday. They have given some of the new species snappy names -- BoarCroc, RatCroc, DogCroc, DuckCroc and PancakeCroc -- but say their findings help build an understanding of how crocodilians were and remain such a successful life form.

Italy collector finds Galileo's lost tooth, fingers

ROME (Reuters) - An art collector has found a tooth, thumb and finger of the renowned Italian scientist Galileo Galilei who died in the 17th century, Florence's History of Science museum announced on Friday. The body parts, along with another finger and a vertebrae, were cut from Galileo's corpse by scientists and historians during a burial ceremony held 95 years after his death in 1642.

All Blacks face dressing down over Twitter leak

WELLINGTON (Reuters) - Neemia Tialata and Cory Jane can expect a talking to from All Blacks coach Graham Henry after revealing on the social networking site Twitter they had been left out of the New Zealand to play England this weekend. The pair published the news they were being rested more than 24 hours before Henry formally announced his lineup on Wednesday.

Obama gets five minutes with half-brother in China

BEIJING (Reuters) - President Barack Obama took time out of his busy diplomatic schedule in China to meet with his half-brother, who lives in the southern part of the country -- but only for five minutes. Obama had the brief meeting with Mark Okoth Obama Ndesandjo, who had the same, late, father as the U.S. president, on Monday evening in Beijing, a White House official said.

U.S. residents fight for the right to hang laundry

PERKASIE, Pennsylvania (Reuters) - Carin Froehlich pegs her laundry to three clotheslines strung between trees outside her 18th-century farmhouse, knowing that her actions annoy local officials who have asked her to stop. Froehlich is among the growing number of people across America fighting for the right to dry their laundry outside against a rising tide of housing associations who oppose the practice despite its energy-saving green appeal.