VIENNA (AP) -- A famed Austrian museum has fired an employee for washing his hands and face with his urine. Alfred Zoppelt says he was fired after 23 years of working as an attendant at the Belvedere, a castle in Vienna with a major art works. He says his adherence to urine therapy was previously ``never a problem.‘’ Zoppelt, 57, said Thursday his notice from Belvedere says he was fired because...

WELLINGTON (AFP) - Teachers at a New Zealand school received a macabre surprise when they realised a supposedly plastic skeleton to be used in anatomy lessons was actually a real set of human bones, a report said Thursday. Totara North School principal Bastienne Kruger had removed the skeleton from storage and was about to use it in class when on close examination she saw that the teaching aid w...

A woman from Texas has reportedly won the lottery four times, prompting interest towards the secret of the unbelievable luck. Joan R. Gither, 63, has won four fortunes worth millions of dollars in the span of 15 years. First she won $5.4 million in 1993, and 10 years later $2 million. Then, another two years later she claimed $3 million, and finally a $10 million jackpot in 2008. Three of the w...

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) -- Three women were killed and three more people feared still buried under debris Monday by a landslide near Malaysia‘s Cameron Highlands tourist spot, the official Bernama news agency said. The landslide late Sunday afternoon buried several houses in a village in the region, which is about 300 kilometers north of the capital Kuala Lumpur, police said earlier. Bernama said th...

LAGOS(AFP) - A Malaysia-bound Nigerian drug smuggler died aboard an aircraft, forcing the pilot to make an emergency landing in India, the anti-drug agency said Saturday. The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency said 25-year-old Chilaka Ogbonna Emmanuel was flying from Lagos on Tuesday for Malaysia via Doha when the incident occurred. "His sudden death arising from drug ingestion forced the pil...

University graduates earn significantly more than high school graduates, a labor ministry survey showed Friday as the government leads a campaign to increase hiring of those without university diplomas. Employees sporting a four-year university degree earned an average of 17,170 won (US$16.1) an hour, while those with a high school diploma brought home only 9,944 won, only 57.9 percent of the pa...

Italy’s Supreme Court ruled a shepherd, who forcefully had sexual intercourse with his wife without taking a shower, guilty of rape, ANSA reported on Thursday. The 51-year-old shepherd, whose name has not been revealed, had imposed sex on his wife from 1992 to 2006, ignoring her pleas to wash first. The Court was told that after refusing to wash, he would force his wife to have sex, ignoring he...

A Japanese woman was reportedly arrested for threatening her boss by sending hate messages, Yomiuri Shimbun reported Sunday. The blackmailer Yamazaki Rinako, 21, had allegedly sent the word “to kill” about 10,000 times to her employer’s cellphone. She had sent 22 messages, which included the word 517 times each. The woman had been working at a local restaurant from January to May this year as ...

At the Samut Prakarn Crocodile Farm and Zoo, a 2-and-half-year-old male Chimpanzee named Dodo has been feeding a tiger cub every day for more than a year. At this Thai zoo located in Bangkok, Dodo picked up the habit when trainers wanted to challenge the chimp. The 35-year-old trainer Sirinaj taught Dodo to hold the bottle and stay with the cub every day. The worker confessed the only problem ...

TEHRAN (AFP) - An Iranian man convicted of throwing acid in the face of a female student who was to have been blinded himself on Sunday in retribution was pardoned by his victim, the state-run television website said. "With the request of Ameneh Bahrami, the acid attack victim, Majid (Movahedi) who was sentenced for 'qesas' ('eye for an eye'-style justice) was pardoned at the last minute" after...