Italian medieval village orders elderly to defy death with regular exams

The Grim Reaper has got his work cut out in Sellia in southern Italy, thanks to a decree ordering the village's elderly and dwindling population to stay in good shape.

There are more stray cats and dogs than people on the winding streets of this Calabrian hillside community, where over half of the houses lie empty. But there's a queue of elderly locals outside the new medical centre.

"Human life is naturally valuable, but here it has a social value as well because every person who dies takes us a step closer to the village no longer existing," Mayor Davide Zicchinella says.