Winner of free funeral in Italy

ROME (AFP) - The winner of a free funeral has not turned up to claim his prize after ticket number 11 was chosen in a raffle in southern Italy, an Italian newspaper reported Tuesday.

The holder of the winning ticket in the raffle - held in the town of San Marco in Lamis - is entitled to a free lined coffin, a tombstone, copper candlesticks and a grave site, Il Corriere del Mezzogiorno reported.

There is no deadline for claiming the prize and the winner can give it to somebody else, raffle organisers said, according to the paper.

Student celebrates $12 million lottery win

LONDON (Reuters) - 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.

(Reporting by Peter Griffiths)



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Tue Sep 30, 1:55 PM ET