An Australian senator who told breakfast radio she would only date men who were rich and "well-hung" apologized Tuesday, saying she had tried to hide her embarrassment with a joke. 

Jacqui Lambie, who took her seat in the national parliament's upper house earlier this month, told Tasmania's Heart 107.3 that she had not been in a relationship for more than a decade.

Tantric massages provide sexual pleasure and are subject to the same tax levied on brothels and swinger clubs in a German city, a state court said Monday.

The decision by an administrative court in Baden-Wuerttemberg state followed a complaint by the owner of a massage parlor who had been billed a total of 840 euros ($1,140) for January and February 2012 under a local "amusement tax" targeting the sex trade in the state capital Stuttgart.

A nonprofit group is taking a novel approach to helping the homeless in San Francisco with a new bus that allows them to take a shower.

The former public transit bus has been outfitted with two full private bathrooms and offers hot showers, clean toilets, shampoo, soap and towels free of charge. The founder of the nonprofit Lava Mae mobile shower bus said she wanted to return a sense of dignity to those living on the streets.

Pop singer Jennifer Lopez may be thinking life is funny after a group of scientists named a water mite in her honor after discovering a new species near Puerto Rico.

The music of the Bronx, New York-born entertainer who has Puerto Rican roots was a hit with the group while they wrote about their findings, biologist Vladimir Pesic said in an email Wednesday.

The parking spaces outside a Chinese shopping mall are distinctive: marked out in pink, signposted "Respectfully reserved for women", and around 30 centimeters wider than normal.

The slots at the Dashijiedaduhui -- or "World Metropolis" -- centre have sparked debate in China, which officially embraces gender equality but where old-fashioned sexism is rife in reality.

South Korea's top Buddhist organisation held an experimental "prayer competition" Thursday, featuring rapping nuns and singing monks in a bid to attract new, younger followers.

More than 300 monks and nuns packed a large temple in downtown Seoul to take part in the competition hosted by the Jogye Order.

Japan's biggest travel agency is launching a bus tour with some decidedly homegrown touches -- a flying ninja and sword-carrying samurai.

The one-hour "Samurai & Ninja Safari" tour around the Japanese capital features a bilingual guide pointing out key sights and then a roll around the historic Asakusa district where streetside performers jump out of the shadows.

Talk about exploring the past. Police say a pair of thieves stole a baby dinosaur replica from a science museum and took props from a history exhibit at another facility.

A police statement says the 21-year-olds were charged with two counts of theft or destruction of property of public libraries and museums, a felony. Officials say they turned themselves in Thursday.

A suspicious device at a southwest Wyoming power plant turned out not to be a bomb, but it might have hurt a mosquito or two.

Security guards spotted the object at the Jim Bridger Power Plant around midnight Wednesday. The device had wires connected to a small battery.

German police were hunting Wednesday for thieves who made off with 10 truckloads of beer while the country was distracted by World Cup football fever.

"We're following up on two or three leads," said a police spokeswoman from the western city of Krefeld, where the pallets of beer were stolen from a warehouse some time between last Thursday evening and Monday morning.