The days of the smallest euro coins may be numbered as two countries start phasing out production

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The days of the smallest euro coins may be numbered, as two countries start phasing out production of their most fiddly and least valuable coppers. Belgium and the Netherlands are to stop producing the one and two cent coins, following the example of Finland, which has never distributed the two smallest coins.While the coins will remain legal tender in all eurozone nations, officials say they will gradually disappear. Already millions of the small coins have disappeared, many of them lost down the sofas of the 12 eurozone nations.Shopkeepers have complained of the administrative cost of stocking the smallest coin, which is worth slightly more than half of 1p.And mints across the eurozone concur. He was released without charge.Last night, one senior Countryside Alliance official who wished to remain anonymous, distanced the organisation from his actions and described how Mr Ferry represented a more radical wing of the pro-hunting movement."We're certain that Otis Ferry was one of the protesters arrested inthe chamber," he said "It wouldn't come as much surprise to anyone We do not approve of what they did. "He is more lost than the children who read him, so he asks questions they would like to, but would never dare to, and tries out things they would like to, but never dare to He is like a lightning rod, drawing the danger away.". But he understands nothing," says Philippe Chappuis, the character's Swiss creator. But while real children may shy away from delving into the bewildering world of teenage vices, Titeuf's effervescent curiosity leads him to reveal the confusing world of adolescence with an unusual frankness "Titeuf wants to understand.

Forget Asterix and Lucky Luke: the undisputed king of the 21st-century French comic strip is an eight-year-old prankster whose precocious pondering of condoms, girls and pornographic magazines has rocketed him to stardom. The initial print run of 2 million copies for the latest Titeuf album, released this month, breaks all the records for cartoon characters in France. The stories have gone down a storm with children who, like Titeuf himself, are teetering on the brink of puberty and are half-fascinated, half-petrified of the mysteries which lie ahead.Like him, they giggle at rude words, play tricks on each other and have odd, unidentified feelings for members of the opposite sex. Thanks to highly effective advertising and a brand of cheeky, slapstick humour that has proved irresistible to school children worldwide, the little figure with an oddly egg-shaped head and an ostrich-plumed quiff is fast becoming an immovable figure in cartoon cool.Since the first album, God, Sex and Suspenders , was published, Titeuf has been translated into 15 languages and has now become the must-have read in playgrounds from Beijing to New York. A total of 11 million volumes have been sold since the series began in 1991.

To be extremely fat is not the same as having the sin of gluttony or laziness, as many today still think. It means to be afflicted with serious problems." Medical conditions to which the very obese are vulnerable include diabetes, hypertension, tumours and heart problems.Obesity is increasing rapidly right across Western Europe, and, says Mr Bosello, it is more than an epidemic in Italy.. Italy has opened the door to a massive pay day for the seriously overweight following a ruling by the Court of Cassation, the highest court of appeal, that the obese are entitled to invalidity pensions. Nearly half of the Italian population is said to be overweight, and about 10 per cent - 5.4 million people - are clinically obese. But until this week the drastically overweight, whose bulk prevents them from working and living normal lives, were unable to obtain any financial relief from the state: the degree of invalidity caused by obesity was fixed at 40 per cent by a decree of the Minister of Finance in 1992. An actual payout, as opposed to a notional but useless official acknowledgement of invalidity, only kicks in when the percentage of invalidity reaches 74 per cent.But on Tuesday the nation's highest court signalled what Italian newspapers were calling "a revolution" when it described obesity as an illness and rejected the 1992 decree. It's obvious he's done something wrong, something not according to the law but I don't yet have the proof."Fo remains a dynamic presence in Italy.