He threw a 70th birthday party in 2008 and a 79th four years later, so fashion followers might be forgiven a little scepticism following Chanel designer Karl Lagerfeld's latest pronouncement on the subject of his age.

Always a dapper figure in sharply tailored suits, high collared shirts and trademark ponytail and dark glasses, the legendary German couturier says he is in fact 77.

The idea behind the Tampa Women's Club charity event was simple. For $20, you could buy a flute of champagne and a chance to win a one-carat, $5,000 diamond.

Organizers of the Saturday event placed $10 cubic zirconia stones in the bottom of 399 of the 400 champagne glasses. The prized diamond, donated by Continental Wholesale Diamonds, was placed in the last.

Organizers of the Powerball lottery on appealed Friday for the owner of a winning ticket to come forward and collect a $1 million prize that has been unclaimed for nearly a year.

"Check your wallet, clean out the drawers and dig in your pants pockets because a New Jersey Lottery player, somewhere, has a $1 million winning Powerball ticket that will expire on May 16," officials said in a statement.

A luxury golf bag, a statue of Abraham Lincoln and an Australian rules football jersey formed part of a treasure trove given to U.S. President Barack Obama in 2011, officials said Thursday.

The list of presents given to Obama by foreign governments or dignitaries released by the U.S. State Department revealed an Aladdin's cave of gifts, ranging from the modest to the lavish.

Global sales of instant noodles have topped 100 billion units annually, an industry group said Friday -- more than one monthly serving of the portable meal for every person on the planet.

Five decades after the easy-to-cook food's launch, sales climbed again last year with China, Indonesia and Japan rounding out the world's top-three consumers, according to the Japan-based World Instant Noodles Association.

Bidders looking for a pair of mended underwear worn by a former emperor came away disappointed Thursday from an auction of Austrian imperial memorabilia. But a lock of his hair was on offer, and went under the hammer for nearly 14,000 euros (around $18,000) —more than 20 times its listed worth.

Vienna's prestigious Dorotheum auction house had said Emperor Franz-Josef's linen would be put on the block, suggesting there was a least a chance that one of the parsimonious ruler's patched undergarments would be put on sale.

A school close to London's busy Heathrow Airport has found a novel way to protect its young students from the relentless roar of planes taking off and landing nearby.

The school has installed a series of sound-cancelling adobe domes outdoors so that its students, ages 3 to 7, can enjoy playtime and lessons outside without fearing damage to their ears.

A hockey player has died in Australia after being bitten by a snake that he picked up -- a rare fatality despite the country being home to the planet's 10 deadliest species.

Karl Berry, 26, reportedly grabbed the deadly brown snake near a training field in the Northern Territory on Tuesday, believing it was a harmless python, and threw it into some bushes to keep it away from children playing nearby.

Dubai police on Thursday showed off a new Ferrari they will use to patrol the city state, hot on the heels of a Lamborghini which joined the fleet earlier.

The car sporting the green and white of Dubai police was unveiled at the foot of the Burj al-Khalifa, the world's tallest building. It will be used by women police to patrol tourist areas.

"Momoko", a 29-year-old Western Lowland Gorilla, gave birth Thursday as the other gorillas at Tokyo's Ueno Zoo looked on -- a rare situation that mimicked how primates are born in the wild.

Usually expectant mothers at the zoo are taken into seclusion before birth.