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ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - A Briton held in Pakistan since May was badly beaten in custody and is awaiting deportation after police failed to link him to terrorists and he was acquitted of fraud charges, his lawyer said. Zeeshan Siddiqui, a 25-year-old Briton of Pakistani descent, was arrested in the northwestern town of Peshawar on May 15 after going to the police to report the loss of his passport,  ...

JAKARTA (Reuters) - Santa isn't just filling stockings in Indonesia. He's also checking packages for bombs in the world's most populous Muslim nation where authorities are gearing up to prevent possible militant attacks. More than two dozen hotel security men dressed like Santa Claus in red outfits with white trims used metal detectors to inspect cars entering a five-star hotel in the heart of Jakarta, where malls and hotels are all dressed up for Christmas. As policemen with machine guns look ...

LONDON (Reuters) - Kept awake at night by a snoring partner? The answer to your woes could lie -- believe it or not -- with the Australian didgeridoo. Researchers in Switzerland examined 25 patients who suffered from snoring and moderate obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome, both common sleep disorders. Half the group were given daily lessons in playing the didgeridoo, a wind instrument about 1.5 metres (yards) long which originated in northern Australia and is traditionally made from the trunk o ...

LONDON (Reuters) - Australian scientists have proved what is common knowledge to most people -- that teaspoons appear to have minds of their own. In a study at their own facility, a group of scientists from the Macfarlane Burnet Institute for Medical Research and Public Health in Melbourne secretly numbered 70 teaspoons and tracked their movements over five months. Supporting their expectations, 80 percent of the spoons vanished during the period -- although those in private areas of the insti ...

LONDON (Reuters) - Boy wizard Harry Potter has already cast his spell on millions world-wide, but new research shows his magic has a hitherto unimagined effect. He has been shown to protect accident-prone children. Researchers at John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford studied attendance records for children aged seven to 15 years at the hospital's emergency department over summer weekends between 2003 and 2005. They found that the number nearly halved on the two weekends in June 2003 and July 2005 ...

By Chris Reese and Claudia Parsons NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York transit workers on Thursday called off a three-day strike that caused havoc in America's most populous city at the height of the holiday season and which may have cost the economy $1 billion (575 million pounds). "Thank God," said Patrick Cunningham, who works on Wall Street, in a sentiment echoed by millions of New Yorkers who had struggled for three days without the subways and buses that normally carry 7 million people a day.  ...

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - He spent 27 years in jail for his struggle against apartheid and has campaigned tirelessly against AIDS and poverty, but at 87, Nelson Mandela's New Year's resolution is to serve his people better. South Africa's first black president and a global icon for freedom and democracy, Mandela has urged South Africans reaping the rewards of a booming domestic economy to share their wealth with those less fortunate this Christmas. "The only resolution I can make is that I shou ...

LONDON (Reuters) - Forget aspirins, hairs of dogs and hot baths, the only sure way of avoiding a hangover is not to drink in the first place, according to a new study. Researchers led by Max Pittler of the Peninsular Medical School at Exeter University, surfed the Internet and combed medical databases to study a range of hangover cures from the traditional to the novel. Their research roamed from the humble aspirin to fructose, artichokes and even prickly pears but found no silver bullet. How ...

LONDON (Reuters) - The RMT union will hold talks with London Underground on Friday in a last minute bid to avert the planned New Year's Eve tube strike. RMT announced the strike on Thursday after a ballot of over 4,000 Underground staff resulted in overwhelming support for industrial action on December 31 and another on January 8/9 following a staffing dispute. But the two sides then said they would hold talks on Friday at the conciliation service ACAS. "We have been seeking talks with London ...

By Donna Smith WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Congress on Thursday agreed to extend until February 3 key provisions of the anti-terrorism USA Patriot Act to allow more time for lawmakers to consider civil liberties protections for the law that was set to expire at the end of the month. The measure goes to President George W. Bush who is expected to sign it despite his earlier objection to any temporary extension of expiring provisions and his insistence that Congress accept a compromise that  ...