A sea lion pup startled guests after waddling from a California beach into a nearby luxury hotel, where it pitched up at the patio bar.

Shane Pappas, manager of the Pantai Inn in La Jolla, said he was alerted when staff found the malnourished animal. "I got an email saying that we had a sea lion pup lounging on our patio," he said.

Fed up with the neighbors? Pipes burst in the kitchen? Or, you just want to get away from it all for a while?

Hotel Finn in the heart of Helsinki might just be the ticket — they're seeking a "professional sleeper" for 35 days to test their rooms and write all about it.

A 25-year-old mother whose two young children starved to death surrounded by rubbish after she locked them in her apartment has been sentenced to 30 years in jail in Japan, reports said Wednesday.

Single mother Sanae Nakamura regularly left her daughter, 3, and one-year-old son, in the apartment in western Osaka while she spent the night at her boyfriend's house, reports said.

Brazilian advertising regulators have warned a brewer over an ad for beer-flavored ice cream, saying it could tempt children and adolescents to drink.

The warning by the National Council for Self-Regulation focuses on an ad on the Skol brand's website and Facebook page which shows a yellow ice cream box with a lid similar to that of a beer can and the caption: "Shall we go to the bar to have an ice cream?"

French police were left baffled Wednesday following the discovery of a charred corpse hanging from a railway cable above tracks in Paris.

Detectives were at a loss to explain how the unidentifiable corpse could have got to where it was found overnight as there was no bridge anywhere near the spot.

Pope Francis, who's earning a reputation as a pretty regular guy as far as pontiffs go, had the courtesy to phone his newspaper vendor back home in Argentina and cancel his subscription.

Kiosk owner Daniel del Regno told Agence France Presse Tuesday that when Archbishop Jorge Bergoglio left Buenos Aires for Rome in late February to get ready for the conclave gathering to pick the new pope, he said he would be back in three weeks or so.

When Prince Harry visits the United States this May he'll have to keep his clothes on -- at least while he's in New Jersey, the state's governor said.

Christie, a blunt-talking, heavy-girthed Republican, said he'll make sure the party-loving British royal doesn't repeat his naked Las Vegas antics that got him into hot water during his last U.S. trip.

Can't afford coffee? No matter. In Bulgaria, an old Italian tradition that sees good souls buying hot drinks for those who struggle to make ends meet has taken hold after weeks of tensions over deepening poverty.

More than 150 cafes across Bulgaria have joined a goodwill initiative modeled on the Italian "caffe sospeso" tradition, which literally means "suspended coffee", according to a Facebook page devoted to the movement.

Female flight attendants with South Korea's Asiana Airlines on Tuesday won a long-running battle to overturn a skirts-only dress code after the national human rights commission ruled it discriminatory.

Starting from early next month, Asiana's 3,000-odd female flight attendants will be allowed to wear trousers for the first time since the company came into existence 25 years ago, an airline statement said.

Residents of the Ukrainian capital suspect the city is trying to pull a fast one on them about its efforts to clean up from a paralyzing blizzard.

A photo that appeared on the Kiev administration's website Sunday after a snowfall of 20 inches (50 centimeters) shows three snowplows clearing a street.