Hoping to align religious tradition with modern life, the Church of England has introduced a new "two-in-one" marriage and baptism ceremony that allows couples who already have children to tie the knot. "Family-friendly weddings" will make it easier for those with children to marry in church, the Church of England said yesterday as it launched an appeal to cohabiting couples in an increasingly secular Britain. If successful, it would also mean more young people being baptised into the Church.
Mandela surprised by baby-faced Robinho
Manchester City players met Nelson Mandela yesterday, with the former South African president surprised by the youthful looks of Robinho.
"You are a baby! What are you doing here?" he asked the 25-year-old Brazil forward as English Premier League club City gave Mandela his own team shirt.
"Your age, it's a fantastic age," said manager Mark Hughes of the 91 on the shirt, days after Mr Mandela's birthday, the Nelson Mandela Foundation said in a statement.
City, widely considered to be the wealthiest soccer club in the world, are in South Africa for a pre-season tour to play local giants Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates.
Graveyard of sunken Roman ships
A team of archaeologists using sonar technology to scan the seabed have discovered a "graveyard" of five pristine ancient Roman shipwrecks off the small Italian island of Ventotene.
The trading vessels, dating from the first century BC to the fifth century AD, lie more than 100 metres underwater and are among the deepest wrecks discovered in the Mediterranean in recent years, the researchers said yesterday.
Part of an archipelago situated halfway between Rome and Naples on Italy's west coast, Ventotene historically served as a place of shelter during rough weather in the Tyrrhenian Sea.
The vessels were transporting wine from Italy, prized fish sauce from Spain and north Africa, and a mysterious cargo of metal ingots from Italy, possibly to be used in the construction of statues or weaponry.
Naked girls plough fields in India for rain
Farmers in an eastern Indian state have asked their unmarried daughters to plough parched fields naked in a bid to embarrass the weather gods to bring some badly needed monsoon rain, officials said yesterday.
Witnesses said the naked girls in Bihar state ploughed the fields and chanted ancient hymns after sunset to invoke the gods. They said elderly village women helped the girls drag the ploughs.
"They (villagers) believe their acts would get the weather gods badly embarrassed, who in turn would ensure bumper crops by sending rains," Upendra Kumar, a village council official, said from Bihar's remote Banke Bazaar town.
Stray snake halts proceedings
A stray snake brought parliament to a standstill for several hours yesterday in India's Orissa state, officials said.
A cleaner spotted the intruder, believed to be a king cobra, while sweeping in the morning and called the assembly's watchman.
The speaker of the assembly in the state capital Bhubaneswar adjourned the house as security personnel, wildlife officials and a member of a local snake helpline searched unsuccessfully for the creature with the help of a sniffer dog.
Snakes are straying more frequently into built-up areas because construction has driven the reptiles out of their habitat, wildlife expert Biswajit Mohanty said.
China boycotts Australia film festival
Three Chinese films have been withdrawn from Australia's biggest film festival in an apparent boy-cott after China's government protested over the inclusion of a documentary about restive ethnic Uighurs.
Chinese consular staff last week contacted organisers of the Melbourne International Film Festival to demand they dump a film about exiled Uighur businesswoman Rebiya Kadeer, blamed by Beijing for instigating this month's ethnic riots in Xinjiang.
Now three Chinese films, Perfect Life, Petition and Cry Me a River, have been withdrawn in protest at Kadeer's planned attendance at the festival next month. "It's a terrible inconvenience but more than that, beyond the inconvenience, it's a terrible thing to happen to the festival that all this political pressure has been brought on us this year," festival organiser Richard Moore told state radio.
Prostitutes defend 'flat rate' brothels
Prostitutes in Germany are fighting back against attempts by conservative politicians and some irate residents to stop popular "flat-rate" brothels.
Officials in the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg launched moves to stop one brothel with a "flat-rate" fee system because they viewed it as inhumane for women to provide unlimited sexual services all day for a one-off €70 fee.
But a group of 77 prostitutes bought advertising space in two national dailies to argue that this was simply a ruse to get brothels banned altogether.
"Get off our backs - no ban on brothels with or without flat rates," read the headline in the quarter-page adverts. Under the guise of humane working conditions, they are in reality plotting to ban brothels and threaten our livelihood."
For a €70 charge customers are entitled to all the sex, food and drink they want between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. The evening flat rate rises to €100.
Pussy club operator Patricia Floreiu has said most customers leave after at most two sessions.
There are at least four such "flat rate" brothels across Germany, a country where prostitution is legal.