For anyone with $15 million (11 million euros) to spare, a dazzling 110-carat pear-shaped jewel known as the Sun-Drop Diamond will go to auction next week.

Said to be the largest diamond of its kind, the gem known as a 'fancy vivid yellow pear-shape' was discovered in South Africa in 2010 and wowed visitors to London's Natural History Museum where it was displayed earlier this year and also in Hong Kong.

A French police dog credited with sniffing out 1,700 drugs suspects was on Wednesday decorated with a medal for bravery and dedication at a ceremony in the southwestern city of Bordeaux.

Aldo, a Belgian Malinois sheepdog, has been behind 1,700 arrests since he started working for the Bordeaux police department in 2006 -- almost one a day -- and 475 arrests this year alone.

A number of livestock traders were robbed of their lucrative Eid-ul-Adha takings after thieves threw itching powder over them at a Mumbai market, a newspaper report said on Wednesday.

The Daily News and Analysis said that several traders selling goats and sheep at the Deonar market were targeted in the run-up to the Muslim festival on Monday, which is marked by the ritual sacrifice of animals.

In a species of hawk, males dress themselves up as females to gain a sneaky advantage in the mating game, according to an unusual study published Wednesday.

Most male marsh harriers (Circus aeruginosus) are grey, but more than a third have permanent plumage that mimics the colors of females, which are mainly brown with a white head and shoulders.

A joyrider who drove his Aston Martin nearly 300 kilometers per hour on a Belgian highway was found by police after posting a video of his high-speed adventure on YouTube, Belgian officials said Tuesday.

The images, which circulated throughout Belgian media, were filmed by a passenger who focused the camera on the speedometer that read 293 kilometers (182 miles per hour).

Arkansas mom Michelle Duggar proudly announced to the world Tuesday she's expecting -- but her 19 other children got to hear the news first.

Duggar, 45, and her husband Jim Bob, 46, have more experience than most in new arrivals, but they told NBC television they were surprised by the latest.

A smirking horned devil exists in the frescoed clouds of a Giotto work in the famed Assisi basilica, an Italian art historian said Tuesday — a tantalizing detail that apparently went unnoticed by scholars for centuries.

The discovery was reported in the online edition of this month's issue of the Franciscan religious order publication San Francesco Patrono d'Italia.

Tunisians rejoiced when a revolt forced Zine el Abidine Ben Ali from power, so when a TV station aired a well-wishing message to the ousted strongman at the weekend, it brought back unwanted memories for some.

"Ay yay yay, my ears hurt", wrote one blogger on Facebook after the public Watanya 1 broadcast the recording, which the official TAP news agency said featured a singer, Fawzi Ben Gamra, praying for "the success" of Ben Ali.

Under the Soviets, they were plain wooden boxes upholstered in red satin. Today they come in different shapes and sizes and cater to a variety of tastes.

Many are made of pine or mahogany hardwood, have a silk or satin lining, and some are encrusted with Swarowski crystals. Russian consumers are becoming increasingly sophisticated in their tastes -- and coffins are no exception.

A weekend sale of rare French wine returned $14.5 million, making it the year's biggest wine auction and underlining Hong Kong's status as a leading wine market, the auction house said Monday.

The two-day auction by U.S. house Acker Merrall & Condit featured the Don Stott Collection, considered a "reference library of great Burgundy", the organizers said.