A therapist pours alcohol over a patient and sets him alight -- for some in China, playing with fire is a treatment for illness.

So-called "fire therapy", which proponents claim can cure stress, indigestion, infertility and even cancer, has been used for hundreds of years and recently garnered a blaze of attention in Chinese media.

In a move that may say more about its Canadian governor Mark Carney than his attitude to quantitative easing, the Bank of England has abandoned cricket as part of its annual sports day, it said Friday.

Carney, who took charge of Britain's central bank last July, asked his 3,500 staff what they wanted to play this year and rounders, tug of war and a three-legged race topped the poll amid reports cricket was seen as too exclusive and technical.

Chinese online stores are cheekily trying to cash in on Uruguay striker Luis Suarez's notorious bite of an opponent at the World Cup by selling bottle openers with his image.

Liverpool forward Suarez was given a four month ban from football for sinking his teeth into Italy defender Giorgio Chiellini during their final group match in Brazil last month.

Voodoo dolls of Colombian star James Rodriguez, candles in Brazil colors and prayers to deities, Neymar and co are getting full support from the World Cup hosts' Afro-Brazilian religions.

Before every game, Helio Sillman lights four yellow, green and blue candles in the colors of the national flag and places them in a rectangular box representing a football pitch.

A seven-time champion and the two-time women's winner will defend their titles at the annual hot dog-eating contest on Coney Island.

Seventeen men and 13 women will compete Friday in front of a crowd of about 30,000 spectators and a TV audience of about one million in the Nathan's Famous Fourth of July Hot Dog Eating Contest, now in its 99th year.

On a warm summer's day in the tranquil Pennsylvania countryside, elves battle crusaders, hobbits clash with knights, and archers target samurai swordsmen. 

And everyone lives to tell the tale.

A heavy metal fan was found to have bleeding in the brain a month after a night of headbanging at a Motorhead concert, doctors in Germany reported on Friday.

Headbanging -- the up-and-down movement of the head in time to a heavy beat -- is usually seen as a harmless bit of fun.

For those who may in fact fancy a nibble from disgraced Uruguay striker Luis Suarez, an online Swedish sex shop has come up with just the thing.

The online store Oliver & Eva on Wednesday unveiled a "Suarez nipple clamp" in the form of the footballer's head, teeth bared, for 33 euros ($45).

A seven-year-old Brazilian boy has been named after so many French football stars that he struggles to pronounce his own name.

He is called Zinedine Yazid Zidane Thierry Henry Barthez Eric Felipe Silva Santos.

Hundreds of cuddly mascots were facing the chop Thursday after Japan's finance ministry ordered local authorities nationwide to cut back in their use, saying many of them are a waste of public money.

The clampdown comes months after officials in one region ordered a cull of its life-size "yuru-kyara" ("laid-back characters"), after finding that the public has no idea who -- or what -- many of them are.