By
The Associated Press
TIANA, Sardinia - An Italian shepherd listed by Guinness World Records as the world's oldest man celebrated his 112th birthday yesterday by downing a glass of red wine - the secret, he says, of his longevity.
''Just love your brother and drink a good glass of red wine every day,'' Antonio Todde was quoted as saying on the Guinness Web site. ''You take one day after the other, you just go on.''
Along with the wine, Todde enjoyed a birthday cake decorated with candles shaped like the number 112.
Italian TV showed a lively, rosy-cheeked man in a jaunty, old-fashioned cap surrounded by his family - which includes a 97-year-old sister and two daughters, aged 80 and 77.
Agriculture Minister Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio had paid Todde a congratulatory visit on Sunday.
Born in 1889 in a tiny mountain village in the heart of Sardinia, Todde has been a shepherd all his life. He left his native island just once, to serve in the military during World War I.
Guinness named Todde the oldest living man in December, after American Benjamin Harrison Holcomb of Carnegie, Okla., died at age 111.
According to Guinness, the oldest certified person is a 115-year-old woman: Eva Morris of the United Kingdom, who was born Nov. 18, 1885.
