Offbeat
Simpsons lampoon a French hit
Video-sharing websites flooded by users watching France's first couple.
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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.
November 23, 2009, 2:08 pm -
Aging Santa gets $100,000 facelift for Christmas
WELLINGTON (Reuters) - A Santa in New Zealand with a droopy eye has received a NZ$100,000 ($74,000) face-lift in the run-up to Christmas so that his aging face does not scare children.
November 23, 2009, 9:33 pm -
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.
November 23, 2009, 6:44 pm -
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.
November 21, 2009, 1:14 am -
Diplomats arrested for cigarette smuggling
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Swedish police have arrested two North Korean diplomats on suspicion of smuggling 230,000 cigarettes into the Nordic country, the Swedish Customs Office said Friday.
November 21, 2009, 12:04 am -
Gang accused of killing to sell human fat
LIMA (Reuters) - Peruvian police said on Thursday they had broken up a gang that allegedly killed dozens of people and sold their fat to buyers who used it to make cosmetics.
November 21, 2009, 12:03 am -
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.
November 20, 2009, 11:43 pm -
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
November 20, 2009, 5:21 am -
U.S. election, iPhone among decade's top 10 Internet moments
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The launch of Wikipedia, emergence of the iPhone and the election of U.S. President Barack Obama were among the 10 most influential moments on the Internet in the past decade, according to the annual Webby awards.
November 20, 2009, 5:20 am -
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.
November 19, 2009, 7:47 pm -
Santas fear swine flu
The thought of kids with runny noses sitting in Santa's lap sharing their deepest desires and germs this holiday season isn't eliciting the usual "Ho, ho, ho!" It's more of an "Oh, no, no!"
November 19, 2009, 6:27 am -
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.
November 19, 2009, 3:09 am -
Lost man drives nine hours to get newspaper
CANBERRA (Reuters) - An elderly man who went out to fetch a morning newspaper ended up driving nearly 400 miles after getting lost and taking a wrong turn onto a major Australian highway, police said on Wednesday.
November 19, 2009, 1:56 am -
Lawmaker apologizes for insulting rival on Twitter
OTTAWA (Reuters) - A Canadian member of Parliament learned the hard way on Tuesday that insulting a rival legislator by Twitter is not a good idea, especially if you're sitting around the same table at the time.
November 19, 2009, 1:52 am -
Johnny Depp named People's "sexiest man alive"
NEW YORK (Reuters) - "Pirates of the Caribbean" star Johnny Depp was named People magazine's "Sexiest Man Alive" on Wednesday, reclaiming a title he first won in 2003.
November 19, 2009, 1:24 am -
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.
November 18, 2009, 9:03 pm -
Make toilets cool to fix sanitation woes?
MUMBAI (Reuters) - Jack Sim, founder of the World Toilet Organization, has a theory about why governments and people are so reluctant to talk about hygiene: it isn't cool.
November 18, 2009, 1:49 am -
Trapped thief drops trousers in bungled burglary
LISBON (Reuters) - He wiggled, jiggled and even dropped his trousers, but a thief trying to break into a supermarket in Portugal stayed stuck fast in a tiny window until he was rescued by police and the fire brigade.
November 18, 2009, 1:37 am -
What's in an unusual name? More than you might think
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.
November 18, 2009, 1:31 am -
Japan's marathon queen Takahashi to run veggie farm
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's former Olympic marathon gold medallist Naoko Takahashi has decided to become a vegetable farmer.
November 17, 2009, 10:43 pm
Breaking News
- 2:45 am Superboat's super spill
- 2:37 am Common enemies unite leaders
- 2:35 am Sink or swim for Turnbull over ETS
- 2:27 am Gender pay gap 'getting worse'
- 2:25 am Workers given back docked pay
News Poll
- Related News Story:
- Push to lift legal drinking age to 19
Opinion
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Dennis Cometti
November 2, 2009, 6:23 amAFL versus the World Cup, round 2If you remember, I did threaten another column.Today I'm in Milan (this is worse than than having a slide night when I get back) and I'm wearing a Sporting Lisbon top.The best soccer news to come out of the weekend was Fulham's striking victory over...
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Gareth Parker
November 18, 2009, 7:45 pmAn inelegant solution but now the genie is outWhile Treasurer Troy Buswell will be applauded in many quarters for his extension of trading hours in an expanded area of inner Perth, it is at best an inelegant solution.The problem now is that the genie is out of the bottle and the inherent...
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Tiffany Fox
November 23, 2009, 5:20 pmSplashing out on waterThere is an ad on TV that has caught my eye. A cute little froggie is jumping from one bucket of water to another, in the hope that the sight of the slimy critter in our drinking water will make us want to use less of it.It is an admirable sentiment,...
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