First milk, butter, coffee and cornmeal ran short. Now Venezuela is running out of the most basic of necessities - toilet paper. Blaming political opponents for the shortfall, as it does for other shortages, the embattled socialist government says it will import 50 million rolls to boost supplies. That was little comfort to consumers struggling to find toilet paper on Wednesday. 'This is the last straw,' sa ...

An overworked Chinese advertising employee died of a heart attack in his office aged just 24. Li Yuan had been working overtime until 11pm every night at the Ogilvy & Mather China offices in Beijing in the month before he died. At around 5pm on Monday he stood up, cried out in pain before collapsing onto the ground, according to a report in the Yangzi Evening News. He was rushed to the Peking Union Medi ...

Using a mobile phone can give you high blood pressure - perhaps due to the stress certain conversations can cause, new research suggests. Researchers found that talking on a mobile phone triggers significant increases in the blood pressure that corresponds to the 'surge' that occurs with each heartbeat. This is the number which doctors pay most attention to when assessing a patient's risk of cardiovascular ...

The thought of eating beetles, caterpillars and ants may give you the creeps, but the authors of a U.N. report published on Monday said the health benefits of consuming nutritious insects could help fight obesity. More than 1,900 species of insects are eaten around the world, mainly in Africa and Asia, but people in the West generally turn their noses up at the likes of grasshoppers, termites and other crun ...

A 7-year-old Russian boy told investigators he had shot and killed his 4-year-old brother by accident with their grandfather's rifle on Sunday, law enforcement authorities said. The boy said he and his brother had found the gun under a bed in their grandparents' house in the Siberian town of Bukachacha and were playing with it on the porch while the adults slept, the federal Investigative Committee said. Th ...

Chinese authorities have begun investigating reports that Zhang Yimou, one of China's best-known movie directors, has seven children in violation of strict family planning rules, which could result in a fine of 160 million yuan ($26.05 million), state media said on Thursday. Online reports have surfaced that Zhang, who dazzled the world in 2008 with his Beijing Olympic ceremonies, "has at least seven childr ...

Italian fashion designer Ottavio Missoni, famous for his zig-zag patterns and the first to put bra-less models on the catwalk, died on Thursday aged 92, a spokeswoman for the family said. The one-time Olympic hurdler founded his fashion empire with his wife Rosita. It is now run by their three children and several grandchildren. ...

Nine more wealthy families and individuals have pledged to give at least half of their fortunes to charity as part of a philanthropic campaign by two of the world's richest men, Warren Buffett and Bill Gates. The Giving Pledge, which was launched by Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft, and investor Buffett in 2010, said on Tuesday that billionaires joining the campaign included New York-based real estate mag ...

On May 1, 2013, Leke Alder, released his latest book, an eBook called #NOVUS. (NOVUS is Latin for “new”). It is a business development story about a young entrepreneur named Don who is desirous of starting a business but has no idea how to go about it. The idea for the book was borne out of Leke Alder’s desire to democratise business knowledge, making it available to everyone. As the story unfolds, the prot ...

It could be the answer to male wardrobe worries - a shirt you can wear for 100 days without having to wash or iron. US Company Wool&Prince says normal button-down shirts wrinkle and smell after a wear or two. It is new wool shirts; however, require just a gentle wash once every 100 wears. Currently cotton shirts require harsh washing, dry-cleaning, and ironing which slowly wear down the shirt until they ...