The Heritage Lottery Fund has granted £10 million to the York Minster to be used for restoration works at the famous cathedral. The historical Great East Window will be repaired, among other parts of the building. Actress Dame Judi Dench, who was born in York, celebrated the monetary aid saying it was “marvelous news”.

“I was born in York and the Minster is particularly dear to my heart. It's also the backdrop to my theatrical heritage as I had my acting debut there in the Fifties when I performed in the Mystery Plays,” Dench explained. “It's marvelous news that the Heritage Lottery Fund has been so generous.”

A lucky real estate agent from Windsor won $4.6 million in last week’s Lotto 649 draw. Diane Chauvin, who grew up in a public housing, works as a real estate agent and plans to continue working despite this big prize. Her husband, Joel, has a job at Enwin Utilities and will keep working too.

“I know what it's like to be poor. Now I know what it's like to be rich,” Diane said at the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation offices in Toronto, where she received the cheque. “It's important to keep grounded,” Chauvin added. “It's a lot of money.”

Two months after the lottery was suspended and the National Lotteries Board started its search for a new operator, Minister of Trade and Industry Mandisi Mpahlwa announced lottery sales would start within the next two weeks and the first draw would be before the end of October.

Uthingo, Gidani, Igwija and Nikan’ Abanto were the companies that applied for the license, which was finally granted to Gidani. Last September, the consortium had been selected by Minister Mpahlwa but the decision was revised when the Pretoria High Court ordered the government to further examine the shareholding structures of all the bidders.

A lucky player from Cornwall has to thank his bad memory for a double share of a £2.5 million lotto jackpot. Derek Ladner, 59, became the first person in the UK to win twice in the same lotto draw when he purchased a ticket after forgetting he had already bought one.

Delivery driver Mr. Ladner and his wife Dawn, 60, were more than happy to receive a cheque for £958,284 this week. Two days after the draw, he claimed his prize of £479,142 and only a week later he remembered that he had bought another lotto ticket with the same winning numbers: 3, 9, 10, 12, 46 and 47.

Intralot, the most important Greek lottery systems provider, announced this week that it has signed a five-year exclusive license agreement to operate lotto games in South Korea. Company officials said through a statement that “Nanum Lotto”, a consortium of which Intralot is part, won the license to operate in the Asian country.

The company’s statement also informed that it will be the main provider of the necessary technology to operate lottery games in South Korea, which will involve providing 9,000 lotto terminals. According to recent studies, these games generate profits of about $2.5 billion per year in the country.

The countries that were part of the former Republic of Yugoslavia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Montenegro, Republic of Macedonia and Kosovo, which at present time is under the interim administration of the United Nations, announced that they have come to an agreement for the creation of a new lottery game.

The new form of lotto, that is estimated to be launched in fall, next year, will cover a 20 million people market. The exact characteristics of the game are still unknown but it was said that it will be more attractive than the ones existing at the moment in each country.

A Dublin lotto player is the lucky winner of a jackpot of more than €7.3 million. Although the punter’s name has not been revealed yet, lottery authorities have informed that the winner wagered €4 and selected the six winning numbers, instead of choosing the Quick Pick option.

The ticket was purchased at Joe Hughes’ grocers and newsagents on Mayfield Avenue and the numbers picked by the lotto winner were 1, 3, 16, 22, 28 and 29. Only a few hours after the draw on Saturday night, it was revealed that the ticket had been sold in Artane.

Lottery officials informed that a wining Mega Millions ticket worth $112 million was sold at Freeman Market in Hawthorne, California. None has come forward yet to claim the prize from Friday night’s drawing. The winner or winners have 180 days to claim the prize, as of the day of the draw.

A California Lottery official explained that if the winner chooses annual payments, he will receive equal installments of approximately $4.3 million a year for the next 26 years. If the lump sum were chosen, the prize would be about $60 million after taxes.

According to Susan Goedde, a spokesperson for the Missouri Lottery, a single ticket sold in the state matched the six winning numbers drawn on Saturday to win the $7.6 lotto jackpot. Up to this moment, none has come forward to claim the prize. The winning numbers were 6-12-18-29-37-44.

Goedde explained that the winner can choose between the lump-sum payment of $4.6 million, or almost $3.3 million after taxes, or annual payments over 25 years at $304,000 per year, or $215,840 after taxes.

One winner has won 2,75 (M) million-dollar jackpot in the Illinois State Lottery's latest Lotto drawing.

The winning ticket was sold at a store in Decatur. It was the only one to match all six winning numbers from last Wednesday's Lotto drawing.

The next Lotto drawing is scheduled for this Saturday night and will feature a jackpot of 2 (M) million dollars.