With a plasma TV, a DVD player, $172,000 (€110,500) in cash, gym equipment, two refrigerators and a couple of guns, Genilson Lino da Silva had everything he needed for a luxurious life - in his Brazilian prison cell.

It came to an end last Monday when his cell, which also contained a king-sized bed, was raided in a police operation against drug traffickers in the city of Salvador.

"He was alone in all that comfort. It wasn't very big but the other cells had several prisoners in them," a spokesman for Bahian state authorities said.

Officials said Mr Da Silva was serving time as the biggest drug trafficker in Bahia state. He was reported as saying the money in his cell was from old robberies and gambling in prison.

Paulo Gomes, a state prosecutor, said he was not surprised that kidnappings, murders, and drug trafficking were being directed from inside the jail.

Millions of Brits have Aussie ancestors

As many as one in four Britons may have ancestors who moved to Australia - of their own free will - in the 19th and early 20th centuries, online records show.

Despite the much-publicised transportation of criminals to Australia, most Britons who went there in the 1800s did so voluntarily, according to the records.

The names of almost nine million people who travelled to, and within, the country over almost 100 years are revealed in a database billed as one of the most comprehensive ever.

More than 2.2 million of the three million free settlers who travelled to Australia during this time were British, the records for ancestry.co.uk found.

The rest came from Asia and other European countries. From these records, published online yesterday, experts estimate about 16 million Britons are related to an Australian free settler.

Bruni adores Sarkozy for his 'six brains'

In a book to be published this week, France's first lady speaks out about falling head over heels in love with President Nicolas Sarkozy, not only for his "physique", but also for his "five or six brains".

Carla Bruni-Sarkozy lifts the curtain on their relationship in Carla and Nicolas, the real story.

"It all happened suddenly. I wasn't expecting someone so funny, so full of life. I was seduced by his physique, his charm and his intelligence," she said, according to extracts published in Le Point magazine yesterday.

"He has five or six brains which are remarkably irrigated," the former supermodel said, adding that Mr Sarkozy could process what others around him were saying while reading at the same time no matter how late it was.

The 39-year-old singer says she has no intention of ditching her singing career but she would look to support her husband: "I often worry about him. He works unbelievably hard. I try to help him take it easy."

Italy seizes cars from drunk drivers

Italy has begun confiscating the cars of people driving under the effect of drugs or alcohol in the latest attempt to lower one of western Europe's highest rates of road casualites.

Two drivers in their early 20s, a woman under the influence of alcohol and a man who had smoked a cannabis joint, have had their cars seized in northern Italy since the legislation came into effect at the end of last month.

The new legislation states that any driver who tests positive for any illegal drug or has blood alcohol levels exceeding set limits can have the car confiscated. The cars may be auctioned off or used by the police, as is already the case for vehicles confiscated from mafia offenders and drug dealers.

Breathalyser testing is not frequent in Italy, where 5,669 people died on the roads in 2006.

Darwin still causing waves

Speeches and a scientific meeting next month will kick off 18 months of events to celebrate the impact and lasting legacy of Charles Darwin, whose theories on evolution are still causing waves 150 years later.

It was on July 1, 1858 that papers on the development of animals by Darwin and fellow scientist Alfred Wallace were presented to the Linnean Society in London. They did not go down well even if the real furore erupted when Darwin published 'On The Origin of Species' the following year.

On July 1 this year the society, will hold a meeting to discuss how much scientific understanding of the controversial theories has developed since then.

The celebrations will cover three significant events in the life of the shy, retiring scientist who shook the world.

February 2009 will be the 200th anniversary of Darwin's birth and the following November will be the 150th anniversary of the publication of "Origin".

Darwin's theories are still rejected by many. Even in Britain, a poll in 2006 showed that only 48 per cent of people believed Darwin's evolutionary theories.

Freud's dream comes true

Seven decades after Sigmund Freud fled from the Nazis, Vienna has turned one of his dreams into reality: A university dedicated to psychotherapy.

Admissions to the university, named after the Austrian pioneer of psychoanalysis, have soared since it opened in late 2005.

"We're the first university worldwide to offer a complete psychotherapy degree, which Freud wrote about in 1928 as his great dream," said Alfred Pritz, founder and rector of the Sigmund Freud University.

After an initial intake of some 40 students, the private college now has more than 500 students.

Mr Pritz said the popularity of his university, which will start offering degree courses in the English language later this year, showed psychoanalysis was now a mainstream research field.