G20 leaders searching for unity to tackle the global economic downturn failed not once but twice yesterday to all come together for a traditional summit "family photo".

As US President Barack Obama and his Group of 20 counterparts lined up to face the lenses of the world's press, organisers noticed too late that Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper was missing. There was nothing to do but to organise a second photo two hours later.

Alas, this time, Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was absent - and Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was also nowhere to be seen.

There was no immediate explanation given for the leaders' absence - and organisers said there were no plans to take a third, complete photograph. (AFP)

Divorces husband for cleaning too much

A German woman has divorced her husband because she was fed up with him cleaning all the time.

German media reported the wife got through 15 years of marriage putting up with the man's penchant for doing household chores, tidying up and rearranging the furniture.

But she ran out of patience when he knocked down and rebuilt a wall at their home when it got dirty, Christian Kropp, court judge in the central town of Sondershausen, said yesterday.

"I'd never had anyone seek a divorce for this," he said. (Reuters)

Vienna restitutes artworks

The city of Vienna has set a precedent for the restitution of artworks expropriated under the Nazi regime by this week giving up a piece that a German Jewish banker was forced to auction in 1934.

The city council chose to return the artwork to the heirs of Herbert Gutmann even though the Austrian law for art restitution only covers the period between 1938, when Austria was annexed by Nazi Germany, and 1945, when the Third Reich was defeated.

"It was about... overruling the timeframe of the current restitution law in view of a moral obligation," said Andreas Mailath-Pokorny, Vienna city councillor for culture.

Mr Gutmann was a wealthy Jewish banker, the son of a co-founder of Dresdner Bank, Eugen Gutmann. Forced out of the banking world after the Nazis came to power in Germany in 1933, he sold his art collection and other possessions and fled to Britain in 1936.

The Museum of Vienna acquired the painting Pappenheim's Death, by Hans Makart, from a Danish art dealer in 1968, but this week handed it back to Mr Gutmann's grandchildren. (Reuters)

French 'Spiderman' scales London tower

A French urban climber nicknamed Spiderman scaled the outside of the Lloyd's Building in central London yesterday in a protest about climate change.

Alain Robert, famous for his daring unaided ascents of skyscrapers and iconic sites around the world, was arrested once he had climbed back down, police said.

The 14-storey building, which is 88 metres high, is home to the insurance group Lloyd's of London. The protest comes as world leaders meet in London for the G20 summit to thrash out solutions to the challenges facing the international community.

Robert got to the ninth floor and unfurled a yellow banner warning of "100 months" to save the world. Around 20 minutes later, he folded it up and climbed back down.

Among his achievements, Mr Robert has climbed the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the Sydney Opera House, the Empire State building in New York and the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur. (AFP)

Robot scientists can think for themselves

Researchers said yesterday they had created machines that could reason, formulate theories and discover scientific knowledge on their own, marking a major advance in the field of artificial intelligence.

Such robo-scientists could be put to work unravelling complex biological systems, designing new drugs, modelling the world's climate or understanding the cosmos.

At Aberystwyth University in Wales, Ross King and colleagues have created a robot called Adam that can not only carry out experiments on yeast metabolism but also reason about the results and plan the next experiment.

It is the world's first example of a machine that has made an independent scientific discovery - in this case, new facts about the genetic make-up of baker's yeast. (Reuters)