Archaeologists in Cyprus have found what they believe are some of the world's oldest water wells, dating from the Stone Age, 10,500 years ago and containing the skeleton of a young woman.
The wells, unearthed by an excavator at a building site close to the western coastal town of Paphos, adds to another five previously excavated in the region by a team from the University of Edinburgh.
"Radiocarbon dates indicate that these wells are 9,000 to 10,500 years old, which places them amongst the earliest water wells known in the world," the Antiquities Department said in a statement yesterday.
The cylindrical shaft discovered by the excavator had a number of small niches cut out of its sides to enable those who dug the well to climb in and out. It was silted up, containing animal bones and the poorly preserved skeleton of a young woman. (Reuters)
Search for naked French fry thief
Canadian police are searching for a brazen thief who snatched a take-away meal while making a naked run past a fast food restaurant's drive-through window.
An employee of a Langley, British Columbia, Wendy's restaurant was handing food to a customer waiting in her car when a naked man ran between them, taking off with her fries, and leaving little evidence behind, according to police.
"Other than an age range, neither woman could provide further description," police said in a press release.
The man, believed to be in his 20s, jumped into a waiting van, which sped away from the scene during the weekend incident, police said. (Reuters)
Elderly kidnap gang arrested in Germany
German police have smashed a gang of suspected kidnappers aged between 60 and 79 - an act which highlighted the greying of Germany's population.
The formal arrest of one couple aged 74 and 79, another aged 63 and 66, plus a 60-year-old American, came after police commandos stormed the cellar of a property at dawn over the weekend to find their 56-year-old victim.
Police said they believed the man, who was reported missing last week in Speyer near Heidelberg, was ambushed and assaulted by the American and the 79-year-old, bound up with tape and bundled into the boot of a car.
He was then driven more than 450 kilometres to Chieming near the Austrian border and imprisoned in a cellar for four days. "He was obviously beaten as well, sustaining bruises and two broken ribs," Chieming police said in a statement. "An attempt to escape during a 'cigarette break' went wrong."
Investigators said they believed that demands for money were behind the kidnapping, and that allowing the 56-year-old to make a phone call in this regard proved to be the gang's undoing.
"The man managed to alert the person who we suspect tipped us off as to his precarious situation." (AFP)
Shot German dog bites gunman
A dog in Germany shot by a drunken man with a gun took swift revenge by biting off the end of the man's nose, authorities said.
Police said the armed man was snooping at night in the yard of a house in Stadtlauringen in northern Bavaria when he shot the Bernese mountain dog from point-blank range. Before collapsing, the dog leapt at the 39-year-old man and bit off the end of his nose, a local police spokesman said.
Bleeding profusely, the man called police and was taken for treatment in a nearby hospital.
Doctors removed a bullet from the dog's shoulder and discharged it from a clinic after an operation lasting several hours. (Reuters)
Schumacher is Top Gear's 'Stig'
After years of keeping his identity secret, former Formula One world champion Michael Schumacher has revealed he is "The Stig", the anonymous professional test car driver from BBC motoring show Top Gear.
Each episode of the cult show, which has been sold to television channels around the world, sees "The Stig" whizzing around test tracks in powerful cars wearing a white jumpsuit with his features hidden by a white crash helmet.
The original Stig was axed from the show after British racing-car driver Perry McCarthy revealed his identity in an autobiography in 2002.
In an episode broadcast on Sunday, the current Stig took off his white helmet to loud cheers from the studio audience, revealing himself to be Michael Schumacher, Formula One's most successful driver and seven times world champion. (Reuters)
Ex-smoker Obama still sneaks a puff
US President Barack Obama may have just made life more difficult for cigarette makers, but he is not above sneaking a smoke every now and again.
Mr Obama, who has publicly struggled to quit smoking, said he still hasn't completely kicked the habit even after signing a law this week that will likely set tough new rules for the tobacco industry.
"As a former smoker I constantly struggle with it. Have I fallen off the wagon sometimes? Yes. Am I a daily smoker, a constant smoker? No," President Obama said at a news conference.
"I don't do it in front of my kids, I don't do it in front of my family. I would say that I am 95 per cent cured, but there are times where I mess up," he said.
The new law gives the US Food and Drug Administration the power to strictly limit the manufacturing and marketing of tobacco products.
At a White House signing ceremony on Monday, Mr Obama said that he was among the nearly 90 per cent of smokers who took up the habit before their 18th birthday.
"Once you go down this path it's something you continually struggle with, which is precisely why the legislation we signed is so important because what we don't want is kids going down that path in the first place," he said at the news conference. (Reuters)