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WASHINGTON (Reuters) –
No need to curse that bad driver weaving in and out of the lane in front of you — he cannot help it, U.S. researchers reported on Wednesday.

They found that people with a particular gene variant performed more than 20 percent worse on a driving test than people with a different DNA sequence.

The study may explain why there are so many bad drivers out there — about 30 percent of Americans have the variant, the team at the University of California Irvine found.

"These people make more errors from the get-go, and they forget more of what they learned after time away," Dr. Steven Cramer, who led the study published in the journal Cerebral Cortex, said in a statement.

Cramer and his team tested 29 people — 22 without the gene variant and seven who had it — asking them to drive 15 laps on a simulator and then repeat the task a week later.

To their surprise, they found that those with the mutant gene did worse, consistently.

The gene controls a protein called brain-derived neurotrophic factor, which affects memory.

The team was not really looking for insights into driving but chose the driving test because it uses common skills.

"I'd be curious to know the genetics of people who get into car crashes," Cramer said. "I wonder if the accident rate is higher for drivers with the variant."

(Editing by Philip Barbara)

WARSAW (Reuters) –
Patrols of two, wearing white overalls, are boldly entering toilets across Poland to check whether the country is loo-ready for the 2012 EURO soccer championships.

Lots of loos pass the test, they say, but others — particularly those that date back to pre-1989 Communist days — are less enticing.

The Toaleta2012.pl project, organized by a company manufacturing toilet equipment, aims to encourage ordinary Poles to join the patrols.

The project is looking ahead to 2012 when thousands of fans will come to Poland and Ukraine for the European Soccer Championships.

So far the patrols have visited 200 toilets in Poland's six major cities and have conducted a survey among foreign tourists, which showed hotels and airports provide good quality toilets, while railway and bus stations lag behind.

The Dziennik Gazeta Prawna newspaper commented drily that the country's toilets were, however, still better prepared for the championship than its soccer players — who failed to qualify for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

(Reporting by Kuba Jaworowski; Editing by Steve Addison)

NEW YORK (Reuters) –
Financial woes often drive couples apart but the current recession seems to be having the opposite effect, with less couples able to afford the cost of a divorce.

The American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers (AAML) said more than half of the respondents to its latest survey among its 1,600 members had cited a drop in divorce filings during the current recession which has cut jobs, salaries and house prices.

In total, 57 percent of the attorneys noted fewer divorce filings since the last quarter of 2008. Only 14 percent noted an increase in filings during these difficult times.

"The current economic climate is proving to be far more unforgiving than estranged couples seeking a divorce," said Gary Nickelson, president of the AAML, in a statement.

"Forced to weigh damaged marriages against tight budgets and uncertain financial outlooks, many spouses seem more willing to try and wait out the recessionary storm."

(Writing by Belinda Goldsmith, editing by Miral Fahmy)

SOFIA (Reuters) –
Bulgarian prosecutors are investigating a new gambling game in which drivers defy death by speeding through red lights for bets of up to 5,000 euros ($7,400), the chief prosecutor's office said Thursday.

Known as 'Russian road roulette', the driver must jump red lights at busy intersections at high speed and not crash into any other cars or pedestrians, according to local media reports. Onlookers also gamble on the result.

Prosecutors launched their investigation after media reported the new game had been held at night at busy crossroads in Sofia since the summer.

In June, two people died after a motorcyclist crashed into an onlooker at a similar rally on Sofia's ring road.

"Every time we receive a signal for such an unregulated race, we send patrols," Commissioner Vanio Stoevski, head of the Sofia Road Police, told Reuters. Since the deaths in June, police have monitored roads where such races are typically held.

Local media report that participants in the 'Russian road roulette' are informed via text messages of the venue for that particular night — depending on the presence of police.

(Reporting by Irina Ivanova; editing by Erik Kirschbaum)

TEL AVIV (Reuters) –
Coffee drinkers at a popular Israeli chain can have their fortunes told for free if they buy a cup of the brew that leaves grounds at the bottom.

"A surprise is waiting for you when you finish your coffee," say waitresses at branches of Ilan's Coffee House in Tel Aviv, where marketing manager Michal Steg has hired a "gypsy" soothsayer to teach staff how to interpret the residue.

The free service is meant to boost sales in Israel's highly competitive coffee market.

(Writing by Elana Ringler and Douglas Hamilton; Editing by Steve Addison)

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) –
The U.S. economy may have begun to recover in 2009, but holiday office parties are sinking even further into the dumps.

Fewer companies plan to break out the bubbly this season than in 2008, at the height of the global financial crisis, according to a survey from Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc.

Only 62 percent of about 100 companies that responded to the survey were planning holiday parties this year, down from 77 percent a year ago and 90 percent in 2007, as recession-era cuts extended from benefits and profit-sharing to Santa hats and disc jockeys.

"For companies that have recently announced layoffs or other significant cost-cutting measures, such as wage freezes, it would be difficult to justify, let alone get in the mood for a holiday party," said John Challenger, the firm's chief executive officer.

Challenger said it sends out roughly 1,000 survey requests to human resource executives at a wide variety of U.S. companies. Each year, roughly 100 respond on the firm's anonymous website.

At Gotham Hall, a premiere New York venue, Managing Director B. Allan Kurtz said he's only recently begun booking some of his most popular event days for the season. And, they're doing it on the cheap.

"No one's gangbusters like they've always been," he said, adding that he hasn't seen an atmosphere like this in the 25 years he's been in the business.

Last year, Kurtz said that pre-planned events scaled back, opting instead to reduce expenses by switching dinners for cocktail parties, or passing on the seafood. This time around, they're waiting till the last minute to book the event.

"We've learned to be more flexible," Kurtz added, saying the hall has forsaken some profit to match customer's budgets.

The Challenger survey found that of companies going ahead with holiday festivities, 64 percent said they would spend the same amount as a year ago, and 28.5 percent are spending less.

SKIMPING ON SANTA HATS

Nearly two-thirds said they would do without a caterer, event planner or other outside service. That could mean an employee will be conscripted to set up the party — or that workers would have to help stock the refreshment table themselves.

Compare that with the heady days of late 2006, when 80 percent of companies planned holiday parties and nearly one in three planned to boost their budgets significantly.

Not everyone has felt the pinch, however.

The Chicago Ritz-Carlton's General Manager, Michele Grosso, said that some customers who didn't call last year are actually booking for this holiday season. But he said that they're spending less and contacting many more establishments to get estimates than they used to.

While the Hornblower Cruise Lines of California saw some customers reconsider as the financial crisis deepened last year, the ship-operator has not cut prices this time around.

"They're still looking for the elements that make a holiday party extra-special," said Hornblower representative Tegan Firth. Still, she said, business isn't like it was in 2007, or even the days before the dot-com-bust at the turn of the millennium.

This year's dampened spirit comes as no surprise as companies cut more jobs and Americans try to save as much money as they can for fear of even worse days ahead.

Equifax credit bureau said earlier this month that new credit cards issued were down more than half from July 2008, and Americans' savings rate rose to an estimated 3.71 percent in the third quarter.

Challenger also said employees who will get to party on the company dime this year should refrain from any drunken hijinks.

"Now is not the time to draw attention to oneself with embarrassing conduct at the holiday party," he said, "particularly at a time when everyone's job is at risk of being downsized."

(Editing by Michele Gershberg, Lisa Von Ahn and Valerie Lee)

SHANGHAI (Reuters) –
Five Filipino transvestites have gone on trial in Shanghai, accused of drugging men with adulterated foods before robbing them in a city with a reputation for an adventurous nightlife.

Prosecutors told a Shanghai court on Tuesday the five men "dressed as women and, after leading the victims into taxis or hotel rooms, induced them to eat chocolate and other foods laced with sleeping drugs," the Xinhua news agency reported on Wednesday.

The men then robbed their victims, taking mobile phones, credit cards, and a Rolex watch. They then uses the cards to buy perfume and gold, the prosecutors said.

The five men aged from 26 to 30 were accused of committing the crimes three times from late last year to February, and were detained by police in March. Local newspaper reports said the goods stolen were worth 340,000 yuan ($49,780).

The men pleaded guilty to the charges, and "expressed remorse for the victims, the Chinese government, their own country and their families," added the Legal Daily.

The court will give a verdict at a later date, the news reports said.

(Writing by Chris Buckley; Editing by Ben Blanchard and Miral Fahmy)

OSLO (Reuters) –
A man was caught by Norwegian customs carrying a tarantula in his bag, and a further 14 royal pythons and 10 albino leopard geckos taped to his body, media reported Monday.

The 22-year-old Norwegian was stopped in a routine check by Kristiansand customs after arriving on a ferry from Denmark, newspaper Faedrelandsvennen reported.

Customs found the tarantula, before deciding to give him a full body search that revealed 14 stockings — one for each snake — taped around his torso, top selling tabloid VG said.

Reptile smuggling is not uncommon in Norway, which prohibits people holding many reptile species as pets, but office manager Helge Breilid at Kristiansand customs was quoted by VG as saying customs officers had been "horrified" by Sunday's catch.

"Customs officers quickly realized the man was smuggling animals, because his whole body was in constant motion," Breilid told VG.

When the man dropped his pants, the officers found 10 cans taped to his legs, each containing a lizard, he said.

The man was still being held by police Monday, Kristiansand police attorney Johann Martin Kile told VG, adding he would be released upon agreeing to pay a 12,500 Norwegian crowns ($2,256) fine.

The reptiles were handed over to a security firm until Norwegian authorities decide what to do with them, Breilid said.

(Reporting by Richard Solem)

BEIJING (Reuters) –
A mob of angry parents lynched a book salesman and badly injured four of his colleagues after rumors spread that the men were part of a human smuggling ring, the official Xinhua agency said late Monday.

The attack at the Chumen Primary school, in prosperous eastern Zhejiang province, occurred in the early morning as the group handed out leaflets about a lecture to be given nearby, the agency quoted a police official as saying.

After gossip spread that a gang was trying to ensnare the young pupils, parents surrounded the group and set upon them until police intervened. One man died in hospital and the others were undergoing treatment, Xinhua said.

Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of children go missing in China each year, seized by roving criminal gangs to serve as props for beggars or for sale to childless couples.

Estimates are difficult to come by, though the Ministry of Public Security reported investigating 2,566 potential trafficking cases last year.

Traditional patriarchal values in poor, rural communities mean many families see nothing wrong in buying a kidnapped boy.

Boys, particularly toddlers, can fetch 30,000 yuan ($4,400) on the black market. Girls fetch much less, around the equivalent of $500, according to media reports.

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia (Reuters) –
Women may soon be banned from wearing tight trousers in parts of an Indonesian province that practices strict Islamic law, and offenders could see their attire cut up.

Aceh is the only province in predominantly Muslim Indonesia to use Islamic sharia for its legal code. The previous provincial government passed a controversial law in September allowing adulterers to be stoned to death.

Now Ramli Mansyur, regent of a district in West Aceh, said on Tuesday he plans to introduce a regulation forcing women to wear Muslim dress, which could come into effect in December.

"Trousers are allowed, as long as the woman also wears a long skirt down to her ankles," he said. "The fashion has become too open, and it embarrasses me."

Mansyur said women who will flout the law will not be served at government offices and their trousers could be destroyed. He has ordered 7,000 skirts to be set aside for women who cannot afford to buy such attire.

"If a woman wears pants and tucks her top in, that's wrong. Even if she is wearing a headscarf, her dress can still show her body shape, and that is not perfect Muslim dress," the head of sharia department in West Aceh, Nur Djuned, also said.

Aceh, on the far western tip of the Indonesian archipelago, is sometimes referred to as the "verandah of Mecca" because the staunchly Muslim province was one of the first parts of the country to turn to Islam.

(Writing by Olivia Rondonuwu in Jakarta; Editing by Sara Webb and Miral Fahmy)