The mayor of Peru's third-largest city inaugurated a book fair by saying he does not like to read.

"People close me to know that I do not read, that I never write. But I took time last night to go over some papers and be able to explain what a book fair is," said the mayor of Trujillo, Cesar Acuna.

British customs agents made a creepy discovery when an airline passenger was found with 94 kilograms (207 pounds) of caterpillars in his luggage.

The man claimed they were intended as food for personal consumption.

At 37 pounds (16 kilograms), Biscuit the cat is about the right weight for a 4-year-old — human, that is.

A U.S. animal shelter is trying to find him a new home.

A British man who has spent most of the past decade naked — and in jail — was back behind bars Friday after defying an order to cover up.

Stephen Gough, known as the "Naked Rambler," was arrested Thursday as he left a court in Southampton, southern England, wearing only boots, socks and a knapsack.

Fake election posters encouraging cardinals to vote for Ghanaian prelate Peter Turkson to be the next pope went up around central Rome on Friday in a provocation by an anonymous group of artists.

"At The Conclave Vote Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson" said the posters with a large picture of the African cardinal in his scarlet beretta looking up at the sky.

On a visit to Paris Wednesday, new U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry wowed reporters by speaking in French, the language of his childhood summers in Brittany.

"We just finished one of those wonderful French lunches that have been drawing Americans to Paris for centuries," Kerry said en francais at a joint press conference with French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius.

Police in Russia's northwestern city of Saint Petersburg have launched a probe after a video of an eight-year-old girl driving 100 kilometres per hour (60mph) through snowy scenery went viral on the Internet.

The clip of Karina Mikulchik driving was shot by her mother Yelena, who was sitting in the back seat. The footage has been viewed nearly 500,000 times on YouTube.

A Chinese boss ordered nine employees to do his 12-year-old daughter's homework, a report said, as office tyranny meshed with a parent's desire to see his child score well in the competitive school system.

"The leader said, 'Do some homework, it will be like practising'," one of the suffering subordinates told the Qianjiang Evening News.

An Indonesian woman drowned her nine-year-old son in the bath, claiming she was worried that his "small penis" would affect his prospects for the future, a police spokesman said Thursday.

The 38-year-old woman from the capital Jakarta told police her son had had a small penis prior to being circumcised, but that it appeared to shrink further after the operation, police spokesman Rikwanto, who goes by one name, told Agence France Presse.

A man known as Nutzu the Pawnbroker has been indicted for leading a fearsome criminal gang, but the public seems to be more interested in his pets: four lions and two bears.

Ion Balint — his real name — had long been known to have an affinity for wild beasts in his home.