AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - A week before Valentine's Day, a consignment of cocaine was found hidden among 20,000 roses from Latin America at Amsterdam airport, Dutch authorities said Wednesday.

JAKARTA (Reuters) - There is a restaurant in Jakarta that promises patrons they're going to feel at home and things look promising when a pajama-wearing waiter asks if you'd like to dine in the bedroom.

LONDON (Reuters) - An influx of cheap electronic goods from China and the Far East has prompted British burglars to turn to other crimes such as robberies and muggings, according to research published on Wednesday.

LONDON (Reuters) - Grumpy colleagues, slow computers and office jargon are the things that annoy workers most, according to a survey on Wednesday.

BERLIN (Reuters) - A thief in the German town of Hamelin robbed an amusement arcade by threatening the attendant with a cup of coffee, authorities said on Tuesday.

SYDNEY/LONDON (Reuters) - British broadcaster ITV pleaded guilty to animal cruelty and was fined by an Australian court on Monday after a rat was killed and eaten on the reality TV show "I'm a Celebrity ... Get Me Out of Here."

• In a 2009 survey of over 100,000 adults in North America, Europe and Australia, 8.3 percent of the men and 22.2 percent of the women said they had been out in public without underwear at least once in the previous twelve months.

• Over 90 percent of Microsoft Excel files have no data on Sheet2 and Sheet3

• Linguists assert that ninety percent of the time Americans say "I am not sure" what he or she really means is "I do not know."

• Actor Pauly Shore got a perfect score on the SAT both times he took it.

• The oldest Mayan calendars divided the year into 18 'months'. Each month contained from three to six 'weeks' and the weeks were comprised of from 1 to 12 days. Wealthy households employed a full-time date keeper whose sole responsibility was to know what day it was.

SYDNEY (Reuters) - An Australian performance artist set a new Guinness World Record on Monday by simultaneously swallowing 18 swords, each nearly as long as two and a half rulers.

• Between 1962 and 2008, in 94.7 percent of NFL football games, the last offensive play by the losing team was an incomplete pass.

• In 1960, the average NFL player used a single pair of cleats for 14.23 games. In 2005, the average NFL player used 19 different pairs of athletic shoes in a 16 game season.

• During the 2009 regular season, six NFL teams had leather helmets in stock in their equipment rooms.

• Of the players in the NFL between 1960 and 2000, 99.1 percent were born in the contintental United States.

• New Zealand has the second higest ratings for the NFL's Super Bowl, on a per capita basis, after the United States.

SYDNEY (Reuters) - An Australian banker who became an internet sensation after he was caught on live television viewing images of a scantily clad supermodel on his computer will keep his job, Macquarie Bank said Friday.

PORT BLAIR, India (Reuters) - One of the world's oldest dialects, which traces its origins to tens of thousands of years ago, has become extinct after the last person to speak it died on a remote Indian island.

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - A Chinese woman is seeking extensive plastic surgery to look like U.S. actress Jessica Alba, mainly because she hopes to win back her boyfriend who she said always wished she looked more like the Hollywood star.

DUBAI (Reuters) - A traditional Emirati restaurant in Dubai has added a new entree to its menu billed as a fat-free choice for carnivorous but health-conscious diners: the Camel Burger.

SYDNEY (Reuters) - A red-faced banker has been caught looking at racy near-nude photographs on his computer, with his actions broadcast live on Australian television.

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - A South African minibus taxi driver five times over the legal blood alcohol limit at breakfast time was arrested on Wednesday for transporting 49 children in a 16-seat vehicle.

LJUBLJANA (Reuters) - A Slovenian who saved his three dogs from being put down for attacking humans was himself mauled to death by them, police said Wednesday.

WELLINGTON (Reuters) - A 14-year old New Zealand girl has been praised for fighting off a shark with her boogie board after it had bitten her. The shark bit Lydia Ward on the hip as she was standing in waist-deep water on a beach near the southern New Zealand city of Invercargill on Monday, the Southland Times newspaper reported.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Would the Black Eyed Peas persuade you to shop at Target or Eric Clapton lure you to switch to T-Mobile?

LONDON (Reuters) - Britons snowed in by the wintry weather have been flocking to an extra-marital dating site in the last 24 hours.

PARIS (Reuters) - French police are investigating whether a pickpocket stole thousands of euros from passengers as they slept on an Air France flight from Tokyo to Paris.

LONDON (Reuters) - A United Airlines pilot admitted in court on Tuesday that he had turned up at London's Heathrow Airport to fly a plane to Chicago while three times over the alcohol limit.

• In the United States, 87.3 percent of "pigs in a blanket" are consumed between Thanksgiving and Super Bowl Sunday.

• The Burj Khalifa in Dubai, which is the world's tallest building, used more sand in its concrete than is on all the beaches in Massachusettes.

• Adam Sandler derives more income from royalties on his Hanukkah Song than on residuals from his television performances.

• Four months after his death, Senator Edward Kennedy's Senate email address recieved an average of 1276 emails per day.

• As of 2010, no U.S. President had ever worn dental braces as a child.

MADRID (Reuters) - Spanish police have uncovered at least 25 kilos of heroin hidden in boxes of plantains destined for the shelves of Madrid supermarkets, local media reported on Sunday.

LONDON (Reuters) - A gambler who threatened to kill a racehorse in a bid to stop it taking part in a race after he forgot to place his syndicate's bet was given a suspended jail term on Monday.

ROME (Reuters) - A Sicilian man stole sweets and a packet of chewing gum so he could get arrested and spend New Year's Eve in a jail cell rather than be with his wife and relatives, Italian media reported on Friday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Here's some advice stemming from the unusual case of a man who had spider hairs stuck in his cornea: Be sure to cover your eyes when hanging around with your pet tarantula.

LONDON (Reuters Life!) - Excessive drinking over New Year's Eve could cost Britain's National Health Service as much as 23 million pounds, according to a report on Thursday which recommends drunks be charged a hospital admission fee of 532 pounds ($845.9).

• December 31 is the only day of the year during which there are more people on the island of Manhattan between 6:00 and 11:59 PM than between noon and 6:00 PM.

• Each year, more champagne is consumed to celebrate weddings than to celebrate the New Year.

• The portion of the population that is awake at 12:01 AM increases approximately 3.8 percent over the norm on New Year's Day. The portion of the population that is awake at 1:00 AM decreases approximately 18 percent over the norm on New Years day.

• In much of Indochina, it is considered bad luck to kiss anyone between sundown and midnight on December 31st.

• Approximately 14 percent of the population makes one or more New Year's resolutions. Approximately 98 percent of those resolutions are not kept for more than three weeks.

• The park benches in New York City's Central Park are the most heavily-used benches in the world. The average bench is used by 8.12 people per day with the average person using the bench for 28 minutes.

• The famous electronic "zipper" that presents news, sports and weather in New York City's Times Square, shows an average of 11,123 different news items per year.

• The island of Manhattan in New York City grew in size by 5.02 percent between 1888 and 2008 due to landfill projects that extended the landmass into the surrounding rivers and bay.

• As of 2007, if all the buildings in Manhattan were stacked on top of one another, they would reach a height of 73.196 kilometers.

• As of 2003, the deepest sub-basement in Manhattan was 89.3 feet below grade level.

• In 2008, 137 countries observed a Thanksgiving holiday, down from 152 in 2000.

• In the United States, fewer people work on Thanksgiving than any other day of the year.

• On Thanksgiving, the average American consumes 37 percent more calories than on an average day.

• Fewer Americans eat their main meal at home on Thanksgiving than on any other day of the year.

• Of Americans who eat turnips on Thanksgiving, 72 percent of them do not eat turnips on any other day of the year.