Offbeat - AFP

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - Google has adapted its free email service to help those letting loose after a few evening cocktails or succumbing to lovelorn moments from firing off messages they might regret in the morning.

TOKYO (AFP) - A British tourist in Tokyo caused havoc on Tuesday after he swam stark naked in the moat around the Imperial Palace, one of Japan's most sacrosanct sites, television footage showed.

LONDON (AFP) - A top BBC presenter, known for his aggressive interviews, slammed the publicly funded broadcaster Tuesday for "fawning" over Britain's royal family in its news coverage.

BRASILIA (AFP) - Barack Obama, Bin Laden, Zidane and Father Christmas all failed in bids to win local elections held in Brazil on the weekend, officials here said.

RIGA, Latvia (AFP) - As Latvia struggles with recession, betting on official monthly inflation figures has become an opportunity to strike it rich with bookmakers offering attractive odds.

LONDON (AFP) - British department store Selfridge's on Sunday launched a new up-scale chocolate treat -- the "Credit Crunch" -- for shoppers looking for comfort food amid the international financial crisis.

SYDNEY (AFP) - Australians who sound like crocodile hunter Steve Irwin or Crocodile Dundee actor Paul Hogan could soon be a relic of the past, a report said on Sunday.

TOKYO (AFP) - As the economic might of Japan faces up to the global banking crisis a single cat has boosted the finances of a small Japanese city by millions of dollars, according to a study.

JERUSALEM (AFP) - French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said on Sunday he was misquoted by Israel's Haaretz newspaper which reported him as saying Israel would "eat" Iran before Tehran developed a nuclear bomb.

BERLIN (AFP) - Porsche boss Wendelin Wiedeking has managed to steer clear of the immediate fallout of the global financial crisis, telling a German newspaper that he has avoided investing in shares.

BEIJING (AFP) - Mao Zedong's personal airplane has been put up for sale by the owner of a shopping centre in southern China to make more space for parking.

ABINGTON, Pennsylvania (AFP) - White House hopeful Barack Obama brought his motorcade to a halt Friday to dash out and buy a dozen white roses on his 16th wedding anniversary prior to a "romantic dinner" with wife Michelle.

MOSCOW (AFP) - A Russian man faces a jail term after eating part of his ex-wife's passport during a dispute over her right to live in his flat, prosecutor's said in a report Friday.

KATHMANDU (AFP) - Three skydivers in Nepal entered the record books on Sunday, plunging from above the height of Mount Everest to land at the world's highest drop zone.

SYDNEY (AFP) - A seven-year-old Australian boy broke into an animal centre and fed a three-metre (11-foot) crocodile a range of native reptiles, police said Friday.

NEW YORK (AFP) - Scientists who unlocked the inner secrets of dog fleas, crisps and tangled string swept the tongue-in-cheek annual Ig Nobel Prizes on Thursday.

MARSEILLE, France (AFP) - Marseille staff and players were involved in a whip round to pay for fuel for their plane back to France in midweek after a bizarre incident because of an administrative error.

MEXICO CITY (AFP) - A missing Mexican "condom-mobile" was found in a parking lot outside the capital minus 4,000 condoms and a seven-meter inflatable replica, an HIV/AIDS prevention worker told local television Thursday.

MOSCOW (AFP) - Police in Russia say they are searching for more than 215,000 guns that have gone missing from arsenals around the country.

BJERKREIM, Norway (AFP) - Some 2,700 sheep were lining up to shed their wool in Norway on Thursday as the 13th Golden Shears World Championships began in the southwestern village of Bjerkreim.

MONTERREY, Mexico (AFP) - Mexican Manuel Uribe, the world's fattest man in the 2007 Guinness Book of Records, said Wednesday that he would wed this month, after losing nearly half his original weight.

SEOUL (AFP) - A conman in South Korea opened a private museum stuffed with fakes and earned 530 million won (443,000 dollars) from people who thought they were ancient treasures, police said Wednesday after arresting him.

LONDON (AFP) - A bank note with a face value of one million pounds fetched 78,300 pounds (138,000 dollars, 98,000 euros) at auction in London Wednesday.

MADRID (AFP) - Two Turkish immigrants who were reduced to begging on the streets after being released from prison are pleading with authorities to send them back to jail, judicial sources said Wednesday.

LONDON (AFP) - Squeamish men look away now: a Serbian chef is bringing out Thursday a no-holds-barred guide to cuisine with a twist: "The Testicle Cookbook: Cooking With Balls."

TOKYO (AFP) - Tokyo police said Tuesday they had arrested a man with a passion for women's underwear who used a fishing rod to reel them in.

GENEVA (AFP) - Opera stars in Zurich will swap their usual grand surroundings for the hubbub of a station concourse on Tuesday for an innovative performance of Verdi's 'La Traviata,' local media reported.

TOKYO (AFP) - Fatty food isn't a problem just for humans. A Japanese aquarium is putting its dolphins on a diet after their portly figures got in the way of their water tricks.