Twins who swapped roles charged with fraud

ROME - An Italian woman who worked as a part-time judge as well as a lawyer was substituted by her identical twin sister in court so she would not lose out on legal fees when she had two simultaneous engagements.

The 54-year-old twins from northern Italy have now been charged with fraud and will go on trial in January, Italy's leading newspaper, Corriere della Sera, reported Friday on its website.

One of the twins, identified only as Gabriella, worked primarily as a lawyer but also as an honorary judge, a part-time, paid position that entails helping full-time judges when their case load is heavy.

When Gabriella was called to be a substitute judge she sent her sister twin Patrizia to stand in for her at an existing engagement as a defense lawyer elsewhere in the Milan area.

The problem was that sister Patrizia was not a lawyer like sister Gabriella but charged the clients anyway.

The clients discovered the sister act and are now suing both for damages. Prosecutors have charged both with fraud, the paper said.

Planes circle isle after controller overslept

ATHENS - Two airplanes due to land on the Greek island of Lesbos had to circle above the Aegean sea for more than half an hour because an air traffic controller overslept, police said Monday.

An Olympic Airlines aircraft, arriving from the Greek capital Athens, and a Slovakian Airlines plane made several failed attempts to contact control tower personnel.

"They were calling the tower to get directions, but no one would answer," a police official, who declined to be named, told Reuters. "The woman later said she overslept."

The airport's secondary control service assisted the pilots to land after they had circled for 40 minutes. Police said the controller, who was not named, would be suspended for a few days.

Student celebrates $12 million lottery win

The credit crisis and tight student budgets hold no fears for a British teenager who won 7 million pounds ($12.68 million) on the Lottery.

Ianthe Fullagar, 18, from Cumbria, northern England, said she still plans to go to university next year to study law, despite her huge win on the EuroMillions game.

Although she won't need a student loan or inflated overdraft, she said she hopes to be just like the others at college.

"I'm going to live the life of a student. I'm going to live in student digs," she told the BBC on Tuesday. "I love baked beans."

The teenager said she screamed so loudly when she checked her ticket that her dog jumped up and bit her on the bottom.

She hid her winning ticket in her bra before moving it to a jewelry box and then her gym bag while she waited for her win to be confirmed.

After receiving an over-sized check at an official ceremony, she said she plans to spend her winnings on her family and friends and a new Ford Ka.

Swiss high court strikes down Geneva smoking ban

GENEVA (Reuters) - Smokers in Geneva were given a reprieve on Tuesday after the top Swiss court struck down a ban on smoking in public places, in force since July 1, saying the local government had overstepped its powers.

The ban was approved by nearly 80 percent of Geneva voters last February.

But the Federal Tribunal has ruled that the local government had no legal basis to impose the ban, having failed to wait for the cantonal parliament to adopt a formal law after the referendum, the Swiss news agency ATS said.

"The Federal Court's decision will have the effect of delaying for several months the application of a decision which Genevans have clearly taken," Geneva's government said in a statement about the ruling by the Lausanne-based court.

Smokers in public buildings, bars or restaurants risked a fine of up to 1,000 Swiss francs ($908), while owners of establishments risked a fine of up to 10,000 francs for violating the ban.

Voters in eight of Switzerland's 26 cantons have approved bans on smoking in public places although not all have come into force yet. Both Zurich and Basel voted at the weekend in favor of more restrictive smoking regulations.