The grieving family just wanted to see the body one last time before his cremation. But peeking into the coffin for the final farewell they got a shock: it was someone else.

Researchers have found that New Zealand's kea parrot has the avian equivalent of an infectious laugh -- a call that when heard prompts others to drop everything and have some fun.

Kea live in alpine areas and are renowned in New Zealand for being intelligent and mischievous, often called "the clown of the mountain".

A years-long crime spree by Chinese toilet paper thieves may have reached the end of its roll after park officials in southern Beijing installed facial recognition technology to flush out bathroom bandits.  

A suspected meteor lit up the skies above Pakistan's mountainous north late Wednesday, officials said, with panicked residents reporting a mysterious light whizzing past and the sound of multiple, powerful blasts.

The ruler of Dubai on Wednesday ordered three men accused of feeding a cat alive to two dogs and filming it to clean the city's zoo for three months.

Turkey's red meat association has ordered a consignment of prize Dutch cattle to be sent back to the Netherlands, saying it no longer wants to farm the cows due to the diplomatic crisis between the countries. 

An elderly man burnt a nurse alive at a clinic in central Israel on Tuesday after apparently being dissatisfied by the treatment he had received, police said.

Police in Dubai have arrested a man who was behind a gruesome video showing a cat being fed alive to dogs as a punishment for eating birds, local press said Tuesday.

Russia put a blogger on trial Monday on charges of offending religious believers and fomenting hatred by posting a video online that showed him hunting Pokemon in a church.

A sea turtle dubbed 'Piggy Bank' has had her fortunes restored after Thai vets removed 915 coins from her stomach -- a deposit built up after years of gulping down good luck pennies tossed into its pond.

The 25-year-old turtle, called 'Omsin' in Thai, underwent a gruelling seven-hour surgery on Monday to remove the five kilogramme hoard of coins.