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  Pakistan Times

MENORCA (Spain): The world's oldest man has died at his Spanish home at the grand age of 114. Retired shoemaker Joan Riudavets Moll was officially recognised as the world's oldest man after the death of Japan's Yukichi Chuganji, also 114, last year.

Riudavets, who attributed his longevity to a life of moderation, was born on December 15, 1889 - the year Hitler and Charlie Chaplin were born and the year the Eiffel Tower was completed. He had been retired for half a century.

He died at home in Es Migjorn Gran on the Spanish Mediterranean island of Menorca on Friday night, a police spokesman said. "I spoke to him a few days ago and he had all his faculties," the spokesman said. "He spoke and reasoned perfectly well without any problems. It was a natural death; he had not been ill."

Riudavets' grandson said he was still taking walks at the end of his life and was always surrounded by friends. "He nearly always had people around him and he had a great gift for words," his eldest grandson, Pablo, told a British news agency.

Riudavets, who joined the family shoe-making business and retired in 1954, never stopped marvelling at inventions like the aeroplane - first flown when he was a teenager - and electricity. "The aeroplane was something incredible, but the most important change was electricity - without doubt, it changed everything," Guinness World Records quoted him as saying.

He attributed his long life to doing everything in moderation, including smoking "but not too much". He used to sleep up to 14 hours a day but also enjoyed playing football and the guitar.