Reuters Life!

MADRID (Reuters Life!) - Spanish bullfighter Cayetano Rivera will sport a glittering costume made especially for him by Italian designer Giorgio Armani when he takes part in the "Corrida Goyesca" bullfight in Ronda, Andalusia on September 6.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters Life!) - It's a very long way from starring as the stoner rebel of "Easy Rider" to playing a presidential nominee in the new Disney comedy "Swing Vote," which is now in U.S. theaters, but for Dennis Hopper it's all in a day's work. Or make that a life's work.

LONDON (Reuters Life!) - Embaressed by yor spelling? Never you mind. Fed up with his students' complete inability to spell common English correctly, a British academic has suggested it may be time to accept "variant spellings" as legitimate.

BEIJING (Reuters) - The oldest and biggest Chinese medicine store in Beijing is stocked with traditional ingredients like deer's penis, dried seahorses, fungi, and ginseng.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A man with a black hood pours water on the face of a prisoner in an orange jumpsuit strapped to a table: no, it's not Guantanamo Bay naval base, but New York's Coney Island amusement park.

MEISE, Belgium (Reuters) - It's one of the world's largest flowers, it stinks of rotting meat or rancid cheese and looks very much like a giant penis.

Nick Mulvenney became Reuters' first sports correspondent in China when he moved to Beijing in early 2006. He has spent the last 2- years reporting on the preparations for the Olympics, a task that has taken him from the Chaoyang Park beach volleyball venue to Everest Base Camp.

NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) - Here is a round-up of this week's U.S. celebrity magazines In Touch, Life and Style, People, Us Weekly and OK! Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

LONDON (Reuters) - An eccentric British millionaire has put his entire life up for sale on the Internet -- including his title of Lord of the Manor of Warleigh -- in the hope of converting his assets into cash.

ROME (Reuters) - Rome's right-wing mayor has put on hold a new law banning poor people from scavenging in rubbish bins, after charities said it would have to be accompanied by more help for the destitute.

BEIJING (Reuters) - Young greeters who keep the toilets spick and span at the Olympic Games smile unfailingly at their clientele on the way in and on the way out, though their never-ending task has its dark side.

SYDNEY (Reuters Life!) - Water is the new wine at a top-notch Sydney restaurant offering health-conscious customers "bold" or "velvety" varieties which can cost as much as some vintages.

Michele Kambas is a senior correspondent in Cyprus, where she has worked for Reuters since 1995. A British national, she has lived on the east Mediterranean island for 20 years. In the following story, she recounts the upheaval caused by stringent water rationing and one of the worst droughts on record.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Jakarta nurse Yanti Kartina left her family in Indonesia and joined 200 other nurses moving to Japan where a rapidly growing elderly population has created a desperate need for carers in old age homes and hospitals.

OTTAWA (Reuters) - There seems little chance that all Canadian Anglican clergy will honor the moratorium on blessing same-sex unions requested by the worldwide Anglican communion.

BEIJING (Reuters) - Living in Beijing? The government wants to know your shoe size, blood group, political affiliation and where you get your money from, according to police in at least one corner of the security-obsessed Olympic host city.

BEIJING (Reuters) - Better late than never, Beijing organizers are working on a plan to prevent heatstroke at the Olympics among spectators, athletes and staff.

LONDON (Reuters Life!) - London is just as congested with cars as it was five years ago before the introduction of the world's biggest traffic charging scheme.

LONDON (Reuters Life!) - The enthusiasm for juggling high-powered careers and motherhood is on the slide in Britain and America as support for stay-at-home mums appears to be growing, a major study showed on Wednesday.

LONDON (Reuters) - Ian Brown was lead singer of Manchester-based indie band the Stone Roses, which formed in 1984 and are considered one of the pioneers of the northern English city's "Madchester" music scene.

BERLIN (Reuters Life!) - Archaeologists have discovered traces of a Bronze Age place of worship in Germany in what they say might be the country's answer to Stonehenge.

PARACAS, Peru (Reuters Life!) - Julio Boada has not set foot on his favorite fishing beach since an earthquake caused rockslides that shut access to the famous cove of La Catedral in Peru's national reserve of Paracas last year.

BEIJING (Reuters) - New-born babies in China are paying the penalty for their parents' patriotic fervor, with thousands named after the five mascots of the Beijing Olympics.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oscar-nominated director Stephen Frears is astonished a 2003 film he made about British politics -- promoted as the prequel to his hit movie "The Queen" -- is now being released in the United States on DVD.

TOKYO (Reuters Life!) - Japanese girls born last year can expect to live until they are 86 years old, which would make them the longest survivors in the world, a report from the country's health ministry showed.

Kirby-le-Soken, England (Reuters Life!) - Many Scouts may still meet in damp draughty village halls, but those wanting to widen their circle of friends have also joined up in the virtual world on social networking Web site Facebook.

LONDON (Reuters) - Beijing's streets are alive with Olympic fever, but in London's Chinatown, heartbeat of the city's 100,000-strong Chinese community, the atmosphere is decidedly downbeat two days before the Games.

LONDON (Reuters Life!) - David Tennant, who captivated millions of sci-fi fans as the Dalek-battling Doctor Who, has been wowing British theatre critics with his Hamlet.