Spain's Socialist Party has advised Italy's new Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to employ more women in his Cabinet after he suggested the Spanish Cabinet was "too pink".
Women outnumber men in Mr Zapatero's new government line-up, which includes the country's first female defence minister and Spanish media has recently been filled with pictures of pregnant Defence Minister Carme Chacon inspecting the Spanish troops and of PM Zapatero posing with his female ministers.
However, Silvio Berlusconi, who won re-election this week, was earlier quoted as saying: "Zapatero has formed a government that is too pink, (something) which we cannot do in Italy because there is a prevalence of men in politics and it isn't easy to find women who are qualified for government."
"He'll have problems leading them," Mr Berlusconi joked at a news conference, "Now he's asked for it".
Thief deposits loot with victim
Three days after stealing a rare collection of coins, a thief in Germany took them to the bank for safe keeping - and delivered them into the hands of the man he had robbed. "I don't think the thief was expecting that," said a spokesman for police in Dortmund.
Soon after the thief made the deposit, a bank worker handling the coins recognised them as the set worth some €50,000 that had been stolen from his house. Police tracked down the 36-year-old suspect and arrested him, securing a haul of other stolen goods in the process.
Neanderthals speak again
Neanderthals have spoken out for the first time in 30,000 years, with the help of scientists who have simulated their voices using fossil evidence and a computer synthesiser.
Robert McCarthy, an anthropologist at Florida Atlantic University, used reconstructions of Neanderthal vocal tracts to work out how they would have sounded. The conclusion is that Neanderthals spoke, but sounded rather different to us.
The ancient humans lacked the "quantal vowel" sounds that underlie modern speech and which provide cues that help speakers understand one another.
By modelling the sounds that a Neanderthal larynx would have made, Mr McCarthy's team engineered the sound of a Neanderthal saying "e". In contrast to a modern human "e", the Neanderthal version lacks a quantal hallmark, which helps a listener distinguish the word "beat" from "bit," for instance. Researchers believe Neanderthals survived in Europe until the arrival of modern humans about 30,000 years ago.
Russia probes WWII buffs
Russian prosecutors are investigating a group of military history enthusiasts for extremism because they staged a World War II re-enactment featuring a tank with German army insignia.
Prosecutors say a replica Panzer 38(t) tank, which took part in a mock battle in central Siberia with a World War II-era black and white cross stencilled on its side, was in breach of a law outlawing Nazi symbols.
The enthusiasts who staged the event say the allegations are absurd and accuse prosecutors of failing to understand the point of a historical re-enactment and of mounting a witch-hunt.
Critics have accused the Kremlin of using anti-extremism laws to stifle dissent since parliament in 2006 adopted new legislation widening the legal definition of extremism. The new extremism legislation was used last year to bring criminal charges against a Russian academic who wrote a book that was scathingly critical of President Vladimir Putin.
Gibraltar to cull monkeys
A pack of at least 25 of Gibraltar's famous monkeys are being culled because they are a nuisance and a threat to health in some of the Rock's tourist areas. Two of the monkeys, a national symbol for the British colony at the foot of Spain, have already been given lethal injections. Gibraltar's residents have long lived alongside the macaque monkeys, but Gibraltar Tourist Minister Ernest Britto said the behaviour of one pack had got out of hand in the tourist areas of Catalan Bay and Sandy Bay:
"Children are frightened. People cannot leave their windows open for fear of the monkeys stealing. Apes can bite, and contact with them runs the risk of salmonella or hepatitis."
Once the cull of 25 macaques was completed, the overall monkey population would be set at around 200. A general manager of a local hotel said guests rooms had been vandalised by monkeys scrounging for food but the International Primate Protection League said it was considering calling on tourists to boycott Gibraltar if it did not stop the cull.