Offbeat - AFP

MELBOURNE (AFP) - Protesting pensioners brought traffic to a stand still in Australia's second largest city on Friday when some stripped to demand more money from the government.

MIAMI (AFP) - Giant pythons capable of swallowing a dog and even an alligator are rapidly making south Florida their home, potentially threatening other southeastern states, a study said.

MOSCOW (AFP) - Russian space scientists announced on Thursday a new breakthrough in a long pedigree of firsts: the birth of 30 grandchildren of a "space cockroach" who spent 12 days in orbit.

CAIRO (AFP) - An Egyptian man was sentenced to 1,000 years behind bars on Thursday after scamming hundreds of people out of 280 million pounds (around 52 million dollars), a court official said.

BUCHAREST (AFP) - A female bear and her cub gave residents in Romania a fright Thursday when the beasts climbed up to the third floor of a building to look for food, images on Realitatea television showed.

SYDNEY (AFP) - A Sydney suburb has been dubbed "cannabisville" after police found four apparently normal family homes were actually marijuana hothouses containing vast quantities of the illegal drug.

LISBON (AFP) - Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates Thursday offered an apology for lighting up in a plane while travelling to Venezuela for an official visit and said he would try and kick smoking.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - It's certainly a good start: a 19-year-old political science student who dreams of becoming US president was elected mayor of Muskogee, Oklahoma, beating a 70-year-old for the job, the city hall announced Thursday.

LONDON (AFP) - Embattled Prime Minister Gordon Brown received yet another blow Wednesday as the public voted by a landslide to keep him out of London's Madame Tussaud's waxwork museum.

TOKYO (AFP) - The world's smallest one-man helicopter will soon take flight in the birthplace of Leonardo da Vinci, who is credited with having first thought of a vertical-flight machine, its developer said.

WARSAW (AFP) - Poland's justice minister Zbigniew Cwiakalski on Wednesday launched a probe into the killing of an elk wandering the streets of the Polish capital Warsaw the previous day, according to a radio report.

OTTAWA (AFP) - A skateboarder was jailed Wednesday for refusing to stay off a Canadian city's streets, spotlighting how municipalities push people to walk or cycle more, yet often bylaws leash them to their cars.

TOKYO (AFP) - A Japanese city has been forced to destroy thousands of flowers grown for a local festival after a police officer noticed they were illegal opium poppies, an official said Wednesday.

LONDON (AFP) - Music can influence the taste of wine, according to a new study Wednesday which suggests which songs go well with which types of wine.

CHICAGO (AFP) - The city of Chicago on Wednesday lifted a two-year ban on the sale of the French delicacy foie gras.

LONDON (AFP) - The British government recorded reports of alien craft flying over Liverpool and a UFO hovering over Waterloo Bridge in London, it was revealed in declassified files released on Wednesday.

DETROIT, Michigan (AFP) - High tech met high art late Tuesday when a robot conducted the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.

OTTAWA (AFP) - Tickets, check. Passports, check. Luggage, check. Baby ... oops.

LONDON (AFP) - A booze-fuelled Briton pretending to be Star Wars villain Darth Vader was punished Tuesday for a bizarre surprise attack on two Jedi fanatics.

DUBLIN (AFP) - Earthworms provide services to Ireland worth over 700 million euros (108 million dollars) a year, according to a government-commissioned study on Monday.

LONDON (AFP) - Britain's top judges are to get a new outfit, doing away with their traditional wigs and introducing colour-coded robes which one critic likened to costumes from the hit sci-fi series Star Trek.

SYDNEY (AFP) - An Australian driver has been fined for putting a seatbelt around a carton of beer instead of a five-year-old passenger, police said Tuesday.

TOKYO (AFP) - A Japanese man who stole cash from a store by brandishing a knife turned himself in only five minutes later, saying he wanted to be punished, police said Monday.

LONDON (AFP) - A British university is to offer a degree in funerals, covering aspects of the profession from bereavement counselling to law, customer service and disposal of human remains, it said Monday.

MELBOURNE (AFP) - It's bye-bye bingo, and so long sewing, the old folks at an Australian seniors home have found a new activity to sharpen their wits and steel their bodies -- fencing.

HONG KONG (AFP) - A Hong Kong woman splashed out 130,000 US dollars for a car licence plate carrying "4444", despite the number's traditional links to death in Chinese culture, a report said Monday.

SYDNEY (AFP) - An Australian man has described how he escaped from the jaws of a great white shark by poking it in the eye as it dragged him under water.

SYDNEY (AFP) - An Australian woman raced into the water and dragged to safety a swimmer who was being attacked by a large shark which had already removed "huge chunks" from his leg, reports said on Sunday.