Farmers in one of the poorest counties in a Chinese province built a wall of cash from more than $2 million paid out in year-end bonuses, a report said Wednesday.

The farmers, members of a co-operative in Liangshan county in the southwestern province of Sichuan, stacked bundles of 100-yuan banknotes into a wall two meters (seven feet) long and half a meter high before handing out the dividends, the semi-official China News Service reported.

Nepal's former Kumaris, girls worshiped as living goddesses in a centuries-old tradition, are to be awarded a pension to help them re-adjust to normal life, an official said Tuesday.

Ten former Kumaris will receive the monthly allowance of 10,000 Nepalese rupees ($101) from July for the next 10 years, Kathmandu Metropolitan City chief executive officer Laxman Aryal said.

Looking for that special place to celebrate Valentine's Day this year? Pope Francis on Tuesday set a date for engaged heterosexual couples at a special general audience with him in the Vatican on February 14.

"The Joy of Yes Forever" read a Vatican note announcing the unusual initiative, which was decorated with silhouettes of a man and a woman embracing and a white cross with pink borders against a blue sky backdrop.

A Chinese firm plans to spend $165 million building a full-scale replica of the Titanic -- the doomed luxury liner which sank more than a century ago -- as the main attraction for a theme park, reports said Tuesday.

The original and supposedly unsinkable luxury passenger liner struck an iceberg and went down in the North Atlantic in 1912, killing more than 1,500 people.

A Harley-Davidson motorcycle that was once given to Pope Francis by the manufacturer is to go on sale next month in Paris, a British auction house said Monday.

The 1,585cc Dyna Super Glide was given given to the pope in June to mark the 110th anniversary of the U.S. motorbike maker, London-based auctioneer Bonhams said.

After months of tension between the United States and Russia over issues ranging from Edward Snowden's intelligence leaks to the Syrian conflict, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry sought to bridge the diplomatic gap Monday by giving his Russian counterpart an unusual gift of potatoes.

Kerry, who was in Paris with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to hammer out details of a peace conference on Syria scheduled for January 22, surprised his counterpart by opening up a box and presenting him with two large Idaho potatoes.

British spies are to be given a "licence to speed", allowing the likes of James Bond to drive fast with impunity in the name of national security.

Transport minister Robert Goodwill was to announce the motoring law changes on Monday, which will hand spooks the same exemption as the police, fire service and ambulance drivers.

Managers of an IT company in New Delhi were puzzled as they sifted through a pile of CVs -- as many as 30 job seekers claimed to have worked previously for the same employer.

Unwilling to take any chances, the managers approached a firm of professional sleuths who specialize in screening background information given by prospective employees.

It was a sweet deal.

After answering an assortment of questions about his coach and his prospects for winning a fourth consecutive Australian Open title, Novak Djokovic halted his pre-tournament news conference and walked around the auditorium offering chocolates to the assembled critics.

Trains and trams in Australia's major cities were awash with bare legs and briefs Sunday as pranksters traveled trouser-less for the world's 13th annual "No Pants Subway Ride".

Since its first staging by U.S. group Improv Everywhere in New York in 2002 with just seven people, No Pants Subway Ride has gone global, with thousands of people now joining the stunt in major capital cities across the globe.