Bananas, the world's most popular fruit and the fourth most important food crop, is in deep trouble. Its genetic base, the wild bananas and traditional varieties cultivated in India, has collapsed. Virtually all bananas traded internationally are of a single variety, the Cavendish, the genetic roots of which lie in India. According to New Scientist, for years, the world Cavendish crop has been threatened by pandemics of diseases such as that caused by the black sigatoka fungus. The main hope for survival of the Cavendish lies in developing new hybrids resistant to the fungus, but this is a difficult and time-consuming task because the seedless modern fruit does not reproduce sexually and has to be bred from cuttings.

A Hong Kong tourist was shocked when he found that a beer in Rome cost him $1,251. The visitor was given his bar bill for his drink at Rome's most famous street, Via Veneto. Rome mayor's office said that beers usually cost as much as 10 euros.

A tourist from Hong Kong was charged $1,251 for a beer at a bar in Rome, Italy. Reuters reports that an unscrupulous person invited the tourist to the bar, and served him a beer. He then said it would cost him $1,251. The tourist negotiated it down to about half that amount, but the bar owner on Via Veneto street charged him the full amount anyway.

Rome, Italy (AHN)-A Mexican man, who at a whopping 1,200 lbs, is possibly the heaviest person in the world, is hoping to travel to Italy for a life-saving operation to shed weight.

An Italian woman's love of gourmet food has gotten her banned from the city of Rome. Police describe the 42-year-old woman as a "mooch artist" after she declined to pay her restaurant bill on numerous occasions.