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AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - The Dutch Finance Ministry Thursday acknowledged it was defrauded out of more than 160,000 euros ($204,800) earlier this year by an employee of the ministry unit that handles the state's financing needs.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Canadian parents are more lenient with their children than mothers and fathers in France and Italy, according to a new study.

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Police arrested an 82-year-old man after he bit and kicked officers who had arrived to mediate in a dispute with a neighbor over a domestic pet.

BERNE (Reuters) - Vuvuzelas have been kicked out of European competitions after UEFA said that the controversial plastic trumpets drowned out supporters and detracted from the emotion of the game.

BERLIN (Reuters) - A British airplane en route to Poland was forced to make an emergency landing in Germany after a 56-year-old woman spilled a hot cup of tea on herself, German police said on Wednesday.

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - A number of Dutch colleges are considering legal action against the publisher of a move-in guide for new freshmen, after the company included an ad recruiting students for jobs as online sex workers.

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - The Dutch are set to live longer -- good news for them but bad news for insurers that are expected to suffer from higher capital requirements and tighter profit margins as a result.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Older people like reading negative news stories about their younger counterparts because it boosts their own self-esteem, according to a new study.

PARIS (Reuters) - A man appeared in court on Tuesday accused of trying to dazzle pilots with a laser beam as they were landing at France's second-busiest airport Paris Orly, aviation authorities said.

LONDON (Reuters) - A toilet that belonged to late Beatle John Lennon fetched 9,500 pounds ($14,740) at auction on Saturday, around 10 times its estimate, the sale organizers said.

MILAN (Reuters) - At least 18 mushroom-lovers have been killed in accidents while hunting for their favorite fungi in the mountains and forests of northern Italy.

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Malaysian airport security arrested a convicted wildlife smuggler after finding almost 100 live reptiles in his luggage, the country's Wildlife and National Parks Department said.

CARACAS (Reuters) - A Venezuelan politician is offering breast implants as a prize in a raffle to raise funds for his parliamentary election campaign.

SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Brazil's election is a laughing matter again, at least for now.

LONDON (Reuters) - One in four women who works as a lap dancer in Britain has a university degree and the majority of those involved in the industry enjoy their work, earning up to 48,000 pounds ($74,500) a year, academic research has found.

LONDON (Reuters) - British Airways apologized to passengers after an emergency message warning they were about to crash into the sea was played by mistake.

LONDON (Reuters) - Pope Benedict will be confronted by posters on London's famous red buses during his trip to the British capital next month which will call for the ordination of women priests.

LONDON (Reuters) - The British government has declared war on the profusion of unnecessary road traffic signs, railings and advertising boards, saying they blight towns' English character.

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - For Mike Monteiro, a transplanted Philadelphian who now lives in California, his T-shirt says it all.

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - While most travelers flock to Mexico to sip margaritas on white-sand beaches, a hardy few choose lesser-known tourist sites where they are chased down by immigration agents or risk their lives in dangerous slums.

LONDON (Reuters) - The home of a woman filmed picking up a cat and throwing it into a rubbish bin is under police guard in Britain after her actions sparked outrage from animal lovers and even death threats.

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's culture minister blamed "incompetent" security staff for the theft of a $55 million Van Gogh painting from a Cairo museum and said worries for the safety of the country's art treasures are depriving him of sleep.

BERLIN (Reuters) - A Polish man living in Germany went about his business for about five years without noticing he had been shot in the head because he was drunk when it happened. Police in the western city of Bochum said on Tuesday doctors found a .22 caliber bullet in the back of his head after the 35-year-old went to have what he thought was a cyst removed.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A Labrador that ate a beehive containing pesticides and thousands of dead bees won an award on Monday that recognized the most unusual pet health insurance claim in the United States.

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters Life!) - If you're confused about the difference between "it's" and "its", or unsure how to spell "cemetery", you're not alone, and there's plenty of evidence to prove it.

LONDON (Reuters) - A new British reality TV show, which will film two people -- one disfigured, the other attractive -- living together in a house full of mirrors, has been branded a "freak show" by critics.

LONDON (Reuters) - Pilgrims attending the large public events during Pope Benedict's visit to England and Scotland next month have been issued a long list of do's and don'ts including a ban on musical instruments and steel cutlery.

PARIS (Reuters) - A French woman discovered her 42-year-old son had been buried in the same cemetery where she was attending her brother's funeral, after she had tried to invite him to the ceremony, a newspaper said Friday.

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Dirty Harry the saltwater crocodile has picked, or should that be bitten, Australia's Labor Prime Minister Julia Gillard to win Saturday's cliffhanger general election.

BERLIN (Reuters) - A German bank robber led his pursuers straight to him after taunting police in an email over their efforts to catch him. Authorities in the southern city of Wuerzburg said on Wednesday the 19-year-old sent emails to police and two newspapers to point out factual errors in the report of his bank raid in the town of Roettingen a week ago.