Bidders looking for a pair of mended underwear worn by a former emperor came away disappointed Thursday from an auction of Austrian imperial memorabilia. But a lock of his hair was on offer, and went under the hammer for nearly 14,000 euros (around $18,000) —more than 20 times its listed worth.

Vienna's prestigious Dorotheum auction house had said Emperor Franz-Josef's linen would be put on the block, suggesting there was a least a chance that one of the parsimonious ruler's patched undergarments would be put on sale.

A school close to London's busy Heathrow Airport has found a novel way to protect its young students from the relentless roar of planes taking off and landing nearby.

The school has installed a series of sound-cancelling adobe domes outdoors so that its students, ages 3 to 7, can enjoy playtime and lessons outside without fearing damage to their ears.

A hockey player has died in Australia after being bitten by a snake that he picked up -- a rare fatality despite the country being home to the planet's 10 deadliest species.

Karl Berry, 26, reportedly grabbed the deadly brown snake near a training field in the Northern Territory on Tuesday, believing it was a harmless python, and threw it into some bushes to keep it away from children playing nearby.

Dubai police on Thursday showed off a new Ferrari they will use to patrol the city state, hot on the heels of a Lamborghini which joined the fleet earlier.

The car sporting the green and white of Dubai police was unveiled at the foot of the Burj al-Khalifa, the world's tallest building. It will be used by women police to patrol tourist areas.

"Momoko", a 29-year-old Western Lowland Gorilla, gave birth Thursday as the other gorillas at Tokyo's Ueno Zoo looked on -- a rare situation that mimicked how primates are born in the wild.

Usually expectant mothers at the zoo are taken into seclusion before birth.

A gaffe-prone Indonesian minister has backed the idea of state-run cannabis farms in a country that imposes the death penalty for people caught trafficking the drug.

State Enterprises Minister Dahlan Iskan, whose slogan is "manufacturing hope", said he warmed to the idea after a pharmacist told him about cannabis's medicinal effects.

A massive, partly fossilized egg laid by a now-extinct elephant bird has sold for more than double its estimate at a London auction.

Christie's auction house said Wednesday that the foot-long, nearly nine-inches in diameter egg fetched 66,675 pounds ($101,813). It had been valued at 20,000 to 30,000 pounds pre-sale, and was sold to an anonymous buyer over the telephone after about 10 minutes of competitive bidding.

U.S. President Barack Obama has a unique strategy for keeping his daughters from getting tattoos: threatening to get the same design, along with his wife, and turning it into a family YouTube moment.

"What we've said to the girls is: 'If you guys ever decide that you're going to get a tattoo, then mommy and me will get the exact same tattoo, in the same place," Obama explained on NBC's "Today" show on Wednesday.

If at first you don't succeed, wipe the slobber off and try again.

Just ask 4-year-old pup Huckleberry, who was crowned Monday as this year's "Beautiful Bulldog."

The roving coralgrouper, a predator fish of the tropical reef, uses sign language to advise fellow hunters of hiding prey, according to a study published on Tuesday.

It is the first time that a fish has been known to make "referential gestures," or specific signs that alert a partner to an object of mutual interest, it said.