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Harley-Davidson Inc doesn't do much quietly. Its motorcycles are notoriously noisy. Its slogans - "Screw It. Let's Ride." - are loud too. So why was the Milwaukee company quiet last year when by its own numbers it successfully zoomed past a demographic hazard analysts had fretted about for years? Some background: In a recent interview, a top Harley-Davidson executive told Reuters that in 2012, for the first time in years, the average buyer of the company's bikes was not a baby boomer. For a brand defined by the emergence and, lately, the aging of the post-World War II cohort of consumers, that's a big deal - proof the 110-year-old company is gaining traction with a new generation of riders. Yet its top global marketing guru, Mark-Hans Richer, continues to insist it's no biggie - even though investors have long wondered how Harley would survive as boomers, who embraced its bikes as totems of rebellion in the 1960s and 1970s and drove its growth in the

The small club-shaped West African country of Benin is not on most tourists' radar but its palm-fringed white sand beaches in the south and surprisingly good wildlife parks in the dusty north will reward more intrepid travelers. It has some of the best and cheapest food in the region, blending French and African influences. But the biggest reason to visit is the country's rich and intriguing history; for hundreds of years it was at the mercy of the slave trade and it remains famous for being the birthplace of voodoo.   Voodoo is the official religion for 17 percent of Beninese, although almost everyone incorporates it into their lives. Originally is was called "vodun" meaning: 'the hidden'. Voodoo centers around several vodun spirits and deities. Traditional priests are consulted for their power to harness the spirits through rituals that often involve the sacrifice of a chicken or goat. It is seen as essential to call upon the spirits for protection or p

The cellar where Josef Fritzl kept his daughter captive for 24 years and fathered seven children with her is being sealed off with concrete, much to the relief of neighbors keen to forget one of Austria's most horrific crimes. _0"> Fritzl, 78, was sentenced in 2009 to life imprisonment in a special unit for the criminally insane for incest, rape, coercion, false imprisonment, enslavement and for the negligent homicide of one of his infant sons.   "The dungeon will be filled with concrete and thus sealed at the family's request," estate liquidator Walter Anzboeck told Friday's edition of the Oesterreich newspaper. The construction work began on Thursday and is expected to take a week, costing a total of 100,000 euros ($131,800). The idea is then to sell the house in the town of Amstetten in the province of Lower Austria, Anzboeck told the paper. Neighbors welcomed the news, though some said the house should be demolished. "Hopefully it will qui

With summer prices on the rise, everyone is eager to explore some places that are just starting to appear on many travelers' radars. With up and coming spots in Europe as the focus, the editors and members of travel website VirtualTourist (www.virtualtourist.com) have compiled a list of the 'Top 10 European Cities To See Now'. Reuters has not endorsed this list: _0"> 1. Lviv, Ukraine   Lviv, a city in Western Ukraine that's become a modern business hub, is the spot VirtualTourist members unanimously agreed is the top European city to see now. Many of its highlights are found in an incredibly compact central area, making it the perfect place to explore on a weekend jaunt. Start in Rynok Square, the center of city, which is surrounded by almost 50 unique architectural monuments including the Kornyakt Palace, a Renaissance landmark. Visitors can't miss the Lviv Opera House, a Neo-Renaissance treasure that is often compared to opera houses of Paris and Vienn

Russian lawmakers passed a bill on Friday barring same-sex foreign couples from adopting Russian children, heeding strong signals of support from President Vladimir Putin and broadening a rift with Western nations over gay rights. The State Duma, or lower house of parliament, approved the bill by a 444-0 vote in its third and final reading, sending it to the upper chamber, which is also expected to approve it.   Both houses are dominated by the United Russia party, which is loyal to Putin. In power since 2000, Putin has championed socially conservative values and held up the Russian Orthodox Church as a moral compass since he weathered a wave of protests by mostly urban liberals and started a third Kremlin term last year. He has rejected U.S. and European criticism of a ban on spreading gay "propaganda" among minors that the Duma passed earlier this month that gay rights activists fear has fuelled attacks on homosexuals. EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said i

In a classroom in this impoverished corner of eastern Hungary, children draw pictures of an imaginary village filled with colorful houses where Roma and non-Roma families live in harmony and people have enough money to get by. When the class ends in the town of Berettyoujfalu, some 270 km east of the Hungarian capital, pupils go home to their real-life village, Told, where houses have no running water or sewage and illiteracy is often a problem among the mostly Roma families who live there.   A small art class brings little change to the dire poverty that plagues hundreds of thousands of people in Hungary, but that does not stop a few activists from trying such programs in the most destitute areas of the country. A lucky few children do end up better off as a result. Istvan Otvos, 15, started drawing four years ago. Last year he and another pupil had a chance to go to Portugal where they won a prize at an international art contest. From September he hopes to enroll at one of Hu

Chancellor Angela Merkel told President Vladimir Putin on Friday that German art seized by the Soviets in the wake of World War Two should be repatriated to Germany , a claim the Russian leader swiftly rejected. The tense exchange took place as they opened an exhibition at the Hermitage museum in St Petersburg during a trip by Merkel to Russia . The exhibition about the Bronze Age includes 600 items carried off by the Soviet Union as war reparations, according to the German government.   Merkel said it was an important step that the works were now going on public display for the first time. "It's our opinion that these exhibition pieces should be returned to Germany," she said. Putin replied that it was time to stop making repatriation claims against each other, otherwise Turkey could also demand the return of art from Germany. He said it didn't matter to the average citizen if art is displayed in Berlin, St Petersburg, Moscow or in Turkey. According to Berlin