MOTORISTS in Ireland should cross their fingers – and their legs – when they take the new cross-country motorway.

The Government has run out of money to build any services on the 250km (155-mile) network that stretches from the Irish Sea to the Atlantic, says Reuters.

The government body in charge of roads has begun erecting signs warning drivers not to expect any rest stops – and pointing motorists toward petrol stations in nearby towns.

The AA motoring group said it was unacceptable for drivers not to have anywhere to stop for the toilet or a coffee for the entire journey between Ireland’s two biggest cities, Dublin and Cork.

“It’s a pretty poor half measure in all honesty, it does rather devalue the motorway network,” AA Director of Policy Conor Faughnan told RTE radio. “I guess it’s a sign of the times; they are pleading that they simply don’t have the money.”


Son keeps dead mum in closet

OFFICERS in Japan have arrested a man after finding the body of an elderly woman believed to his mother in a closet at his apartment.

The man was arrested after a neighbour called police reporting a “stench,” reports the Mainichi Daily News in Japan. Police arrived at the man’s home and discovered the elderly woman’s body in a closet.

Early the next morning, police arrested 60-year-old Yutaka Takemoto on suspicion of abandoning a body. “I knew she was dead, but I just left her there,” Takemoto reportedly said.

Takemoto also reportedly told police he had been living on his mother’s pension payments, and police suspect he may have purposefully hidden his mother’s death in order to continue collecting the payments.

The woman had no obvious external injuries, and based on the condition of the body, police surmise she died in late August.

A post mortem examination will be performed to determine more precisely when and how the woman died.


Prison furore over strange fruit

Campaigners have defended the quality of under-sized and oddly-shaped apples after the prisons minister said serving them in jails could lead to riots.

The National Farmers’ Union insisted odd-shaped fruit and vegetables “tastes just as good, eliminates waste and makes economic sense”.

The row came after Prisons Minister Crispin Blunt told MPs that serving undersize apples in jail canteens “will create issues of order and control”.


Get a grip on a longer life

HANDSHAKES with an iron grip could indicate a longer life expectancy, researchers in Britain have found.

Scientists at the Medical Research Council found that elderly people who could still give a firm handshake and walk at a brisk pace were likely to outlive their slower peers, says Reuters.

They found simple measures of physical capability such as shaking hands, walking, getting up from a chair and balancing on one leg were related to life span, even after accounting for age, sex and body size.

The death rate over the period of the research for people with weak handshakes was 67 per cent higher than for people with a firm grip.

The slowest walkers were nearly three times more likely to die during the study period than swifter walkers.

The people who were slowest to get up from a chair had about double the mortality rate compared to the quick risers.