Biologists on Tuesday said they had figured out how the New Caledonian crow, a bird famed for using tools, does its party trick.

Corvus moneduloides, a native of France's South Pacific territory of New Caledonia, is one of the stars of the avian world.

New Zealand will release commemorative "The Hobbit" coins worth thousands of dollars ahead of next month's premier of director Peter Jackson's latest Tolkien epic.

The coins featuring characters such as Bilbo Baggins and Gandalf the wizard will be legal tender in the country, New Zealand Post said, although their face value will be only a fraction of the cost collectors will be expected to pay.

A sumptuous new French restaurant in Sydney said Wednesday it would remove two urinals designed to resemble a woman's lipsticked mouth, apologizing for any offense they have caused.

The Ananas Bar and Brasserie said the bright red-lipped urinals shaped like an open mouth were "a commonly used European design piece from female Dutch artist Meike van Schijndel".

Equatorial Guinea's interior ministry issued a series of recommendations to ensure that Friday's independence day is celebrated in style, banning revellers from wearing flip-flops in the president's native village.

"To ensure the smooth running of the October 12 national holiday, 44th anniversary of our independence, using mobile phones, wearing cropped trousers and flip-flops, carrying knives and drinking alcoholic beverages are banned," Interior Minister Engonga Nguema Onguene said in a statement read out on state radio Monday.

Have you ever wanted to enjoy a live concert without leaving the comfort of your own living room? Now is your chance.

Vienna's venerable Konzerthaus is bringing musicians right into its audience's homes under the title "Rent a musician," to publicise its new contemporary concert series this season.

Two members of rap group Negrescro were arrested after police in their home town of Nice on the French Riviera spotted that the guns they fired in a music video were real, a police source said Monday.

The video released in July, which was shot in the poor Ariane district of the city where the group is from, shows two masked men firing a Kalashnikov and a pump-action shotgun into the air.

Vietnamese authorities have banned Communist Party members in the capital Hanoi from organizing lavish wedding parties, following a public backlash over extravagant nuptials.

The number of guests is limited to 600 for both families and expensive venues such as five-star hotels should be avoided, according to a notice on the Hanoi city's official website seen on Monday.

The winner of a roach-eating contest in South Florida died shortly after downing dozens of the live bugs as well as worms, authorities said Monday.

About 30 contestants ate the insects during Friday night's contest at Ben Siegel Reptile Store in Deerfield Beach about 40 miles (64 kilometers) north of Miami. The grand prize was a python.

A Finnish couple has added to their victories by taking first place in the North American Wife Carrying Championship at Maine's Sunday River ski resort.

Taisto Miettinen and Kristina Haapanen traveled from Helsinki, Finland — where they won the World Wife Carrying Championship — for Saturday's contest. The Sun Journal reports that the couple finished with a time of 52.58 seconds on a course that includes hurdles, sand traps and a water hole.

A 14-year-old Australian girl was Monday charged with attempted murder after she allegedly poisoned two other children, reportedly with chocolate brownies tainted with a household substance.

Queensland state police said the girl had been charged after allegedly giving two boys, aged 12 and 13, food poisoned with a substance "generally found in the home" in the Brisbane suburb of Richlands on Sunday.