Mexico City prison authorities say they have quashed an attempt to smuggle a prohibited cell phone into a city prison in the coffin of an inmate's mother.

Prisoners in the city have the right to have the casket of a deceased parent or child brought into the prison yard so they can bid farewell to their relative.

Zoologists are baffled by the strange behavior of a troop of baboons at a Dutch zoo which have become inexplicably withdrawn, apparently fearful of an unseen threat.

"They became panicked at the end of the day on Monday, they were hysterical, not jumping around but behaving strangely," zoologist Wijbren Landman of Emmen Dierenpark in the northern Netherlands told Agence France Presse on Friday.

A Turkish man living in Germany has invented a Muslim prayer mat that takes the strain off the knees which, he said Friday, he hoped to now sell worldwide.

At first sight, the rug looks like other prayer mats, but it is designed with special cushioning for under the knees, feet and forehead, said Adnan Pirisan, 50, who himself suffered from painful joints.

An attempt to parachute British Foreign Secretary William Hague into an early political career was rejected as a "gimmick" by former prime minister Margaret Thatcher, archives released on Thursday revealed.

Thatcher, who died in April aged 87, first came across Hague when he addressed the Conservative Party conference as a schoolboy.

New Zealand's two main islands have never been formally named due to a clerical oversight lasting 200 years despite being universally known as the North and South Islands, officials said Thursday.

The New Zealand Geographic Board said the names had appeared on maps since European settlement began in the early 1800s but had never been formally recognized.

A woman who gave birth to a baby boy on a Metro platform in downtown Washington is getting $100 in subway or bus fare.

Shavonnte Taylor received a handwritten note of congratulations Thursday from Metro general manager Richard Sarles. Included in the note was a $100 fare card.

Salleles-d'Aude is a picturesque village like so many in France, with vines, a tree-lined canal, a church... and soon, a "private oasis" for ageing British gay people -- reportedly a first in the country.

The brainchild of 66-year-old Danny Silver, the luxury community for gay, lesbian, bi- and transsexual British people will be located just outside the small rural village, whose residents have raised a surprised eyebrow at the news.

It's been so hot in China that people are grilling shrimp on manhole covers, eggs are hatching without incubators and a highway billboard has mysteriously caught fire by itself.

The heat wave — the worst in at least 140 years in some parts — has left dozens of people dead and pushed thermometers above 40 degrees C (104 F) in at least 40 cities and counties, mostly in the south and east. Authorities for the first time have declared the heat a "level 2" weather emergency— a label normally invoked for typhoons and flooding.

The BBC apologized on Thursday for accidentally showing an image of Britain's Prince William with a penis drawn on his head.

The blunder happened when the broadcaster's breakfast TV show aired a clip of a promo video for a comedy group who were appearing later on the program.

An Austrian man was sentenced on Thursday to two years in prison over the death of a woman in his car who mistook the drug "liquid ecstasy" for water.

The 27-year-old Natalie D. and a girlfriend were given a lift from a nightclub in Vienna by the 36-year-old defendant and another man in the early hours of April 1.