The United States on Monday gave back to Mongolia the remains of a 70-million-year-old Tyrannosaurus skeleton stolen from the Gobi desert and sold at auction in New York.

The nearly complete skeleton of the Tyrannosaurus bataar, a cousin of the fearsome Tyrannosaurus rex, had been put up for sale and went for $1.05 million last year before U.S. authorities intervened at Mongolia's request.

Silence for the queen, please.

A troupe of street drummers got a shock when Helen Mirren, dressed as Queen Elizabeth II, emerged from a London theater to berate them for disrupting her show.

A quick-thinking worker at a takeaway food store in Sydney has stopped an attempted robbery by throwing a bucket of chilli at a would-be thief, leaving him with minor burns, Australian police said Monday.

New South Wales state police said a man walked into the store on Sunday and ordered some food, but then argued with staff over payment and walked behind the counter and attempted to open the cash register.

State-run carrier Air India said Saturday it had suspended a pilot and two female flight attendants after a passenger jet's autopilot system was accidentally switched off "due to distraction".

The event occurred on an Air India Airbus flight to New Delhi from Bangkok last month carrying over 160 passengers and followed a series of other safety-related incidents involving the airline.

A man who claimed in a widely publicized documentary to be an American soldier, missing since his helicopter was shot down during the Vietnam War, is actually Vietnamese, the U.S. said Thursday.

"Unclaimed", directed by Michael Jorgensen, which has generated an explosion of interest since its premiere this week, purports to have discovered U.S. serviceman John H. Robertson -- alive, well and living in the communist nation.

An 82-year-old Nepalese man who holds the world record for being the oldest person to summit Mount Everest will defend his title against a familiar octogenarian competitor, organizers said Thursday.

Min Bahadur Sherchan's record for scaling the world's highest peak at 76 is being challenged by arch rival Yuichiro Miura of Japan, who is already on his way up the mountain.

Unamused Chinese censors have been at work to stop people sniggering over the new Beijing headquarters of the People's Daily newspaper, which bear an unfortunate resemblance to a giant penis.

Photos of the imposing tower, which is still under construction, had Internet users tittering away, especially given one of Beijing's other landmarks -- the China Central Television (CCTV) headquarters, nicknamed "The Big Underpants".

Two teens in eastern China committed suicide after "failing to complete homework assignments" state-run media said on Friday, in an extreme case highlighting the immense pressure schoolchildren can face.

In a highly competitive education system that emphasizes rote learning and passing exams, Chinese students spend on average 8.6 hours a day in class and can expect several more hours of assignments afterwards.

An inflatable bright yellow rubber duck six storeys high sailed into Hong Kong harbor on Thursday to the cheers of hundreds of people who gathered to watch the classic bathtime-inspired artistic creation.

The 16.5-meter-tall (54-feet) artwork, conceived by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman, dwarfed other craft as it was towed past the city's iconic skyline by a tugboat a fraction of its size.

Police have stopped members of a far-right party in Greece from staging a free food handout aimed only at Greeks in the capital's main square.

Golden Dawn had said it would give food to needy Greeks in Syntagma Square Thursday, ahead of Sunday's Orthodox Easter. Athens Mayor Giorgos Kaminis had vowed the handout would not be allowed.