EU finds time to tell restaurants how to serve olive oil

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Critics ridiculed European Union bureaucrats on Saturday for taking time off fighting the euro zone's debt crisis to impose strict new rules on how restaurants serve olive oil.

France's Hollande signs gay marriage law

PARIS (Reuters) - French President Francois Hollande has signed into law a bill allowing same-sex marriage, making France the 14th country to legalize gay weddings.

Amid frenzy over map apps, new focus on 16th century world view

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - As online titans compete to deliver instant maps to smartphones, the Library of Congress in Washington is focusing attention on an antique "cosmology" printed in 1507 that...

Toronto mayor denies smoking crack cocaine

TORONTO (Reuters) - Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, a target of criticism for his often unconventional conduct, on Friday denied media allegations that he had been caught on video smoking crack cocaine.

The supervised after-prom party: Now with cars, iPads and other goodies

WICHITA, Kansas (Reuters) - Sometime on Sunday morning, a Pennsylvania high school student will be presented with the keys to a black Honda Civic just for going to a party after the school's annual...

Canadian astronaut wrestles with gravity after spaceflight

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - Back on Earth, Canadian astronaut and cyberspace tweeter Chris Hadfield is getting a rough re-introduction to gravity after a five-month stint aboard the...

Boxing kangaroo stops jogging Australian MP in his tracks

SYDNEY (Reuters) - A startled kangaroo knocked an Australian politician to the ground and clawed his leg after its morning graze on a suburban lawn was interrupted by the jogging lawmaker.

French gay marriage law gets constitutional all-clear

PARIS (Reuters) - France's Constitutional Council cleared the way on Friday for same-sex marriage, throwing out a last-ditch effort by opponents to scupper the country's biggest social reform since...

Gay couples in Portugal win limited adoption rights

LISBON (Reuters) - Portugal's parliament on Friday handed same-sex couples the right to adopt the children or foster children of one partner, a partial victory for equality campaigners that fell...

Czechs turn Soviet nuclear warhead depot into Iron Curtain museum

MISOV, Czech Republic (Reuters) - A former secret Soviet nuclear warhead shelter in the Czech Republic is being turned into a museum inviting visitors to learn about the Cold War atomic race.

Gaucho exhibition at Vatican a tribute to pope's homeland

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Gauchos, the legendary Argentine cowboys from the vast Pampas of Pope Francis's homeland, are being celebrated in a rare exhibition in no less a place than St. Peter's...

Every cent helps: euro zone explores scrapping smallest coins

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Saving pocket change may not end the euro zone crisis, but the European Commission hopes that scrapping the smallest coins could help penny-pinching governments cut costs.

Crowds break up gay rights rally in Georgia

TBILISI (Reuters) - Priests and thousands of other Georgians broke through police barricades and forced gay rights activists to flee on Friday, cutting short their rally to mark the international day...

Change looms for Ethiopia's ancient salt trade

HAMAD-ILE, Ethiopia (Reuters) - Abdu Ibrahim Mohammed was 15 years old when he began trekking with caravans of camels to collect salt in a sun-blasted desert basin of north Ethiopia that is one of...

Travel Postcard: 48 hours in Bucharest

BUCHAREST (Reuters) - Got 48 hours to explore Romania's capital and its eclectic mix of western architectural ideas, eastern imagery, 20th century totalitarian megalomania and buzzing nightlife?

Psychiatrists unveil their long-awaited diagnostic "bible"

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The long-awaited, controversial new edition of the bible of psychiatry can be characterized by many numbers: its 947 pages, its $199 price tag, its more than 300 maladies (from...

China cracks down on over-the-top anti-Japan dramas

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's television regulator has ordered a crackdown on dramas about the country's battles with Japan during and before World War Two and demanded they be more serious, state...

From "bunga bunga" to "pianists" - Italy's political slang

ROME (Reuters) - An encyclopedia of Italian political slang has shone a light on a colorful and Byzantine world where lawmakers and journalists speak a language you won't find in any ordinary...

Struggling with math? Plug in to improve

LONDON (Reuters) - Applying painless but targeted electrical stimulation to parts of the brain that play a role in number manipulation may in future be a way to help people who struggle with math,...

Christie's contemporary sale is biggest auction in history

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The spring auctions ended on a record-shattering high on Wednesday as Christie's contemporary art sale achieved the highest total - $495 million - in the history of art auctions.

Young Libyans find escape in Tripoli's art cinema

TRIPOLI (Reuters) - In the basement of an art gallery in central Tripoli, young Libyans seeking an escape from violence and disorder watch an American movie classic screened using a simple projector...

Seaport battle looms as Israel plans new competition

TEL AVIV (Reuters) - Israel is betting its economic future on high-tech exports but faces a low-tech bottleneck in state-owned seaports subject to work stoppages and slowdowns because of the enormous...

Russian mother held after babies found dead in freezer

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian police detained the mother of two baby boys whose bodies were found after five years in a freezer in the basement of the supermarket where she worked, investigators said on...

Chief executives and the itch to quit

LONDON (Reuters) - On approaching his 60th birthday this year, long-serving Tullow Oil boss Aidan Heavey told staff he felt "like two 30 year-olds".

The cost of no sweatshops: South Africa struggles not to be Bangladesh

NEWCASTLE, South Africa (Reuters) - It's not luxurious, but Goldfinch Garments, the Chinese-owned South African factory where Sindisizwe Zwane works nine hours a day, is far from a sweatshop: the...

Taiwan dumpling eatery tops 101 Best Asian Restaurants poll

TOKYO (Reuters) - A Taiwanese eatery famed for its dumplings was crowned Asia's best restaurant, while restaurants in Beijing claimed the lion's share of spots in the top ten of a new survey of the...

Angelina Jolie caps journey from wild child to doting mother

CANNES/LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - As a tattooed wild child wearing her husband's blood in a locket and luring Brad Pitt away from Hollywood rival Jennifer Aniston, Angelina Jolie was dream fodder for...

Huge colorless diamond goes for record $27 million at auction

(Reuters) - A pear-shaped colorless diamond that is the largest ever offered at auction sold for a record of nearly $27 million in a Geneva auction, where records were also set for the prices of...

Richter painting breaks record for living artist at N.Y. auction

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A 1968 oil painting by German artist Gerhard Richter sold for some $37 million at Sotheby's contemporary art auction on Tuesday, a new record for a work by a living artist.

Turks see art as good investment but also path to prestige

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkey's contemporary art scene is buzzing. Collectors pay millions for the hottest works at exclusive auctions, high-end galleries are springing up by the dozen, and more and...