Jason Valdez is no stranger to Utah police. His latest brush with the law, however, may have been the most public.

An armed Valdez, 36, held a woman hostage at a motel in a tense 16-hour, overnight standoff with SWAT teams, all while finding time to keep his family and friends updated on Facebook, authorities said.

A Scottish businessman flushed hundreds of pounds in supposedly fake notes down the toilet, only to be told days later that they were genuine, a report said Monday.

The man, who asked not to be named, said he had obtained around £200 (226 Euros, $373) in £20 notes from an ATM on the Isle of Lewis off the north coast of Scotland, the Daily Telegraph reported.

A massive uncut emerald on exhibit in Colombia's capital is being touted by its owners as the biggest in the world, officials said Saturday.

The 11,000-karat raw green gem weighs in at 2.27 kilos (almost five pounds) and is on show in Bogota 12 years after it was mined in Muzo, in the South American nation's emerald country in Boyaca province.

French police have arrested an alleged serial foot fetishist who lured foreign women to his home near Paris with the promise of a warm bed but instead pleasured himself on their feet.

The unnamed man, aged 42, from Mantes-la-Jolie to the west of Paris, allegedly approached young women at night after they missed the last train and offered them somewhere to sleep.

Three baby elephants were killed when they were hit by a passenger train in Sri Lanka on Saturday, an official said.

The trio were crossing the tracks in a forested area near Ambanpola, 93 miles (150 kilometers) north of Colombo, when they were struck by a passenger train bound for the capital, railway general manager Wije Samarasinghe said.

Organizers of India's first "Slut Walk" have changed the name of the event and toned down its dress code because of concern the protest is too provocative, reports said Friday.

"Slut Walks," which have become a global phenomenon to protest sexual violence, see women dress in skimpy clothing to challenge the mindset that victims of sexual assault should be blamed for the crime against them.

Porn mogul Larry Flynt offered disgraced U.S. lawmaker Anthony Weiner a job Thursday, after the New York congressman resigned over a tawdry "sexting" scandal.

Hustler founder Flynt said he would pay Weiner, who posted pictures of his intimate anatomy to a number of women on Twitter, 20 percent more than what he earned in the House of Representatives.

The U.N. Human Rights Council passed Friday a historic resolution that seeks equal rights for everyone regardless of their sexual orientation, marking progress for gay rights despite strong Arab and African opposition.

The resolution was passed narrowly with 23 votes in favor, 19 against and three abstentions, after an emotional debate that saw African states accusing South Africa of breaking ranks with the region and siding with the West after it introduced the issue.

A man who dropped out of college just short of graduation in 1932 has earned his degree at age 99.

KTVZ-TV in Bend reports that Leo Plass, of Redmond, received his diploma a few days ago from Eastern Oregon University in La Grande.

As Japan looks to save electricity this summer amid its ongoing nuclear crisis, one regional government has come up with a novel solution not usually found in workplaces here -- siestas.

The government of central Gifu prefecture is urging its staff to go home for a nap between 1:00 and 3:00 pm to cut down on air conditioning and other power usage during the sweltering summer months of July to September.