Reuters: Oddly Enough

Don't kiss Santa, he may have the flu

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 10:44:18 GMT

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.

Houston, we have a baby

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 06:08:30 GMT

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.

Italy collector finds Galileo's lost tooth, fingers

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:23:01 GMT

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.

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

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:43:47 GMT

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.

New fossils reveal a world full of crocodiles

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:50:46 GMT

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.

All Blacks face dressing down over Twitter leak

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 05:46:45 GMT

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.

Obama gets five minutes with half-brother in China

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 19:09:20 GMT

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.

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

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 13:03:47 GMT

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.

What's in an unusual name? More than you might think

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 19:26:10 GMT

LONDON (Reuters) - Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes might have thought twice about naming their daughter Suri if they'd known that it means "pickpocket" in Japanese, "turned sour" in French, and "horse mackerels" in Italian.

Japan's marathon queen Takahashi to run veggie farm

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 14:43:36 GMT

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's former Olympic marathon gold medallist Naoko Takahashi has decided to become a vegetable farmer.

Japan ask 2010 hosts South Africa to ban vuvuzela

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 06:56:12 GMT

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's football chief has joined in the chorus of protestors wanting the noisy vuvuzela trumpet to be banned from next year's World Cup in South Africa.

Italian women disappointed by Gaddafi "party"

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:01:21 GMT

ROME (Reuters) - Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, in Rome for a U.N. food summit, spent several hours in the company of 200 Italian women recruited by an agency and tried to convert them to Islam, Italian media reported on Monday.

Obama in a grass skirt? Hawaii to host APEC 2011

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 07:32:39 GMT

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama invited fellow leaders in the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation to a summit in Hawaii in 2011, but may have alarmed them with the dress code.

Mock funeral mourns Venice's shrinking population

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 18:52:49 GMT

VENICE, Italy (Reuters) - A procession of gondolas accompanied a pink coffin along Venice's Grand Canal on Saturday in a mock funeral to protest against the steep decline in the city's population.

French cash stunt scrapped as huge crowd gathers

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 18:45:27 GMT

PARIS (Reuters) - An Internet company that planned to throw envelopes of cash to passers-by from the top of a bus in Paris had to cancel the publicity stunt for security reasons after thousands of people turned up, police said on Saturday.

Cow dung to power more Dutch homes

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 17:33:12 GMT

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - A plant that converts cow dung into energy for homes opened in the Netherlands on Friday.

Russia's Putin wins respect at hip-hop party

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 17:32:30 GMT

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin rubbed shoulders with rappers and was hailed with "respect" in a television show on Friday that could help boost his flagging ratings.

Heavy metal monk retires from the limelight

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 10:47:49 GMT

MILAN (Reuters) - Italy's "Brother Metal," a 63-year-old monk who became famous for singing in a heavy metal band -- habit and all -- is hanging up his microphone, saying the devil made him too much of a celebrity for his own good.

Facebook provides alibi for robbery suspect

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 22:09:18 GMT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A 19-year-old New York man who was arrested for armed robbery has been exonerated thanks to a status update he posted on social networking site Facebook.

Italian invents anti-swine flu holy water dispenser

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 18:20:22 GMT

ROME (Reuters) - An Italian inventor has combined faith and ingenuity to come up with a way to keep church traditions alive for the faithful without the fear of contracting swine flu -- an electronic holy water dispenser.

China's Hu arrives in Singapore with panda offer

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 17:01:10 GMT

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - China will give Singapore two giant pandas to mark 20 years of friendly ties between the two countries, Chinese President Hu Jintao said Wednesday.

Kawasaki's gum chewers told to keep prize money

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 14:04:50 GMT

TOKYO (Reuters) - Kawasaki Frontale have been told to keep the $5.5 million (3.3 million pounds) prize money the Japanese club offered to return after its players were given a public dressing down for unsporting behaviour following their J-League Cup final defeat.

Chicago student-journalists probed for motives

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 14:01:12 GMT

CHICAGO (Reuters) - A group of university students who claim their research exonerated a convicted murderer were in court themselves on Tuesday, accused of sloppy work and credibility problems.

Lethal Kalashnikov designer is now Russia's hero

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 22:01:08 GMT

MOSCOW (Reuters) - The designer of the Kalashnikov, sometimes called the world's most lethal weapon, was named a "Hero of Russia" Tuesday by President Dmitry Medvedev who lauded him for creating "the brand every Russian is proud of."

Villagers confine rare turtle, say it is God

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 08:51:30 GMT

BHUBANESWAR, India (Reuters) - Hundreds of poor Hindu villagers in eastern India have refused to hand over a rare turtle to authorities, saying it is an incarnation of God, officials said on Tuesday.