Britain's Ministry of Defense racked up a £40,000 (29,000 euros) bill on telephone calls to the speaking clock despite a ban on employees using the service, official figures revealed on Friday.

The ministry introduced the ban on using the service, which has been running since 1936, in 2012 and urged employees to use free Internet sites in order to get the exact time.

A group of Italian lawmakers has written a joke protest to the United States over rumours that the new version of Monopoly will not have a jail -- perhaps mindful of Silvio Berlusconi's ability to dodge prison.

The seven MPs from the centre-left Democratic Party wrote a formal letter to U.S. ambassador to Rome John Phillips, even though the popular table game's producer Hasbro has said there will still be jail.

A teenager who wrote to Pope Francis got a shock when the Catholic leader called him up for a chat -- the latest example of the pontiff's down-to-earth approach.

Francis called up a journalist friend on the day of his election and even phoned a newspaper stand in Buenos Aires to cancel his subscription.

Police released a video Thursday showing a speeding motorcyclist crashing into a bear on a Canadian highway, as a warning to distracted drivers -- and wildlife.

The video shows the motorcycle taking off and accelerating to 140 kilometers per hour in less than 20 seconds on Highway 7 near Hope, British Columbia.

A young Tokyo businesswoman tied herself up at home because she did not want to go to work, Japanese media reported Friday.

The woman in her 20s was found with her hands and legs bound with ropes and belts at her apartment in the capital's west on Monday, the Sankei Shimbun said.

An 82-year-old Spanish woman whose botched restoration of a painting of Christ made her a global laughing stock is to reap nearly half the riches from worldwide merchandising of the monkey-like image.

Cecilia Gimenez took it upon herself a year ago to fix up Ecce Homo (Behold the Man), a flaking, century-old fresco of Christ painted on a pillar in a church in Borja, northeastern Spain.

A 50-year-old tree planted in the centre of Tajikistan's capital Dushanbe by President Emomali Rakhmon this year as a symbol of the ex-Soviet state's "eternal independence" has dried up and died.

The coniferous sequoia, reportedly imported from the United States and planted by Rakhmon at a ceremony in March outside the foreign ministry, died as a result of dehydration.

Two Thai teenagers have discovered laughter isn't always the best medicine after they were arrested for selling balloons containing "funny air" -- or laughing gas -- to tourists.

The pair, aged 17 and 19, were charged Wednesday with trafficking in controlled substances, punishable by a maximum five-year jail term, after allegedly selling balloons containing nitrous oxide in the tourist resort of Pattaya.

Ahh, the joys of roughing it in the great outdoors — champagne, high thread-count sheets, flat-screen television. Camping, New York City-style.

At least a couple of city locales are offering this unusual option — the chance to sleep outdoors, incredibly comfortably. It's an urban take on "glamping," where hotel comforts are taken outside.

A student who spent two years trying to get out of a school detention has lost her case, landing her parents with a fine of $2,100, Switzerland's highest court ruled Monday.

The girl was given detention after skiing down off-limits slopes with several fellow students during a 2011 trip in Klosters, eastern Switzerland.