A door-to-door salesperson who ignored a "Do Not Knock" sign to try to win over a gas customer has ended up costing their Australian employers Aus$60,000 (U.S.$53,600).

The Federal Court ordered gas company AGL South Australia and marketing firm CPM Australia to pay the total penalty after an incident in Adelaide November 2011.

In an effort to solve its growing prison shortage, Norway has asked to rent prison space in neighboring Sweden, the Norwegian justice ministry said Thursday.

In a letter sent this week to his Swedish counterpart Beatrice Ask, Norway's Justice Minister Anders Anundsen explained that the situation in his country made it necessary to "look for extraordinary methods."

A Japanese man went on a year-long burglary spree, making off with a haul worth $185,000 to feed 120 cats a gourmet diet, police said Thursday.

Mamoru Demizu, 48, is suspected of breaking into houses to steal cash and jewels on 32 separate occasions.

A zany Norwegian music video originally intended as a joke was the most popular video of the year on YouTube, the website revealed Wednesday.

Since its release on September 3 the clip -- featuring people in animal costumes dancing in a forest to the refrain "What does the fox say?" -- had more than 276 million views on YouTube, the site said.

Many of us cannot recall the last time we got a letter in the mail, but Santa will this year receive a record eight million of them, the United Nations said Wednesday.

Global postal services expect to sort through that number of wish lists by the time Christmas rolls around, according to a survey by the Universal Postal Union (UPU), which coordinates the world's mail systems.

Citizens of Planet Earth are being invited to make a "video shout-out" to wake up a deep-space probe, Rosetta, that has been in hibernation since June 2011.

The European Space Agency (ESA) is offering prizes for the best video clip of people shouting "Wake up, Rosetta!" to help end its scout's long sleep next month.

Hopes among resourceful inmates of an Austrian prison for a cheerier Christmas have been dashed after 50 liters (13 gallons) of a festive homebrew hooch were discovered by guards.

Prisoners at the Stein prison mixed bread rolls with fruit to create "Punsch", a popular winter-warmer at Austrian Christmas markets on the outside world, the jail's management said on Tuesday.

Canada vowed Tuesday to defend the North Pole and Santa Claus, insisting the mythical figure is a citizen, after Russia ordered its military to step up its Arctic presence.

Paul Calandra, parliamentary secretary to the prime minister, cited Canada's claim of the North Pole to bash an opposition party in Parliament.

It's your 150th day in space, and life is starting to resemble the movie "Groundhog Day" -- a repetitive daily routine interspersed with tugs of longing for life back on Earth.

Then, all of a sudden, things start to look up.

U.S. President Barack Obama may have moved the masses attending Nelson Mandela's memorial service with his stirring eulogy on Tuesday, but it was his grinning "selfie" with the Danish and British premiers that set social networks abuzz.

In a candid moment captured by Agence France Presse photographer Roberto Schmidt, Denmark's Helle Thorning-Schmidt can be seen holding up her smartphone, with Obama lending a helping hand, as they pose for a picture with David Cameron, all three of them smiling broadly in their seats at Soweto's World Cup stadium.