Republican US presidential contender John McCain turned to popular music to illuminate the debate on the Middle East, singing at the suggestion the United States "bomb, bomb, bomb" Iran.

Inventors have created a soap infused with caffeine which helps users wake up in the morning.

An Israeli woman has accidentally bit off part of her boyfriend's tongue during a heated French kiss.

A suspicious package that sparked a bomb scare and evacuation of a New Zealand mail centre was later identified as a harmless sex aid, according to a newspaper report.

Algeria's Health Ministry says a woman has given birth to seven babies at a public hospital in the capital, Algiers.

Local artists unhappy with Liberal MLA Steve Pratt's controversial graffiti removal stunt have made a colourful statement outside the ACT Legislative Assembly.

Preparations to sedate as many as 300 horses stabled at Belgrade's racecourse to keep them calm during a Rolling Stones concert have enraged Serb animal lovers who are lobbying to have the gig moved to another venue.

A macho Dutch elephant left the Netherlands under police escort for a special love trip to Belgium where the pachyderm is set to impregnate three females, the ANP news agency reported.

A marine biologist who become Australia's first aquanaut says the experiment went quickly and he is keen to do it again.

Australia's first aquanaut has returned to the surface after living underwater in wetlands for almost two weeks at Albury on the New South Wales-Victoria border.

Two suspected thieves were nabbed after mistakenly telephoning police as they tried to set up a drug deal, police in California say.

The Brett Whiteley Studio in Sydney will permanently open its doors to the public for free.

With France's presidential elections just days away, the nation's fortune tellers are urgently shuffling tarot cards and staring into crystal balls as they try to predict the result ahead of time.

Former astronaut Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the moon, has announced plans for a lottery that will send its winner into space in a bid to spread the dream of extraterrestrial travel beyond the super-wealthy.

An American astronaut on the International Space Station (ISS) has set a new sporting record by running the Boston Marathon while in space, NASA says.

The funeral for World War II veteran Bobby Gibbes has been held in North Sydney.

British researchers say they are stunned to discover people get more of a buzz from eating chocolate than passionately kissing their lovers.

Hungary's busiest highway, connecting Budapest with the Austrian capital Vienna, was closed early on Monday after a truck carrying rabbits crashed.

A village in south-west Ireland has won a fresh round in a battle to change its name in the Irish language back to Fort of the Harlot.

A guide to the different types of abandoned shopping trolleys has won the Diagram Prize for oddest book title of the year, following an online vote in an industry publication.