Giant pandas eat bamboo at the Bifengxia Base of China Conservation and Research Center on April 20, 2013. Panda lovers around the world will be able to watch live 24-hour Internet broadcasts …more

Panda lovers around the world will be able to watch live 24-hour Internet broadcasts of the iconic Chinese animals from next month, state media reported Sunday.

The London Fire Brigade said Monday it was facing a rising number of callouts for people trapped in handcuffs, blaming it on a best-selling erotic novel's "Fifty Shades of Grey effect".

In the past three years the fire service has rescued 79 people unable to escape handcuffs, as well as nine men with rings stuck on their penises, one with his penis trapped in a toaster and another in a vacuum cleaner.

Forestry officials on the Greek island of Crete have slapped a five-year ban on the collection of a variety of wild herbs snipped to near-extinction, the state-run ANA agency said Monday.

The forestry department of Hania, one of the island's main towns, placed restrictions on picking sage, marjoram, oregano and sideritis, better known as Cretan mountain tea, in protected areas.

A two-headed turtle born last month at the San Antonio Zoo has become so popular that she has her own Facebook page.

Zoo officials say the Texas cooter, named Thelma and Louise for the female duo in the 1991 Oscar-winning movie, has been doing well.

Italy's financial police said Saturday they had arrested a leading figure of a mafia clan wanted for international drug trafficking after surprising the fugitive in his bolt hole dressed in pyjamas.

"During an anti-mafia investigation in Naples, police had a tip-off that dangerous fugitive Adriano Manca... was probably taking refuge in a bar in Torre del Greco," a city in southern Italy, a police statement said.

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and his wife Jill received a customary Singapore honor Friday -- an orchid named after them -- as they paid an official visit to the tropical city state.

Singapore has long used orchid naming to recognize international leaders, with high-profile political figures including Nelson Mandela and Margaret Thatcher having blossoms at Singapore's National Orchid Garden.

Former U.S. president George HW Bush said Friday shaving his head in support of a young leukemia patient whose father is in his security detail was "the right thing to do."

The former president was interviewed at the Bush family compound in Kennebunkport, Maine, by his granddaughter Jenna Bush Hager, a correspondent with NBC's Today show.

An obese South African man has been told he is too fat to live in New Zealand despite shedding 30 kilograms since he moved to the country six years ago, a report said Saturday.

Albert Buitenhuis -- who now weighs 130 kilograms (286 pounds) -- and his wife, Marthie, said they face deportation after an application to renew their work visas was rejected because of his weight.

A 12-year-old girl in the southern French city of Bordeaux has been caught by police after using stolen cheques to buy 2,600 euros ($3,440) worth of candies and pastries.

Local police said Thursday that the girl had stolen a chequebook in March from a neighbour and used it over several months to buy the sweets from local bakeries.

Swaziland beer drinkers face a thirst-inducing shortage of brews in the coming weeks, as the kingdom's biggest brewery upgrades its bottling equipment, beer makers said Thursday.

A local subsidiary of brewing giant SABMiller said a $6.1 million project to replace an ageing bottling line has shut down beer production, but not that of soft drinks or traditional brews.