More than 300 men fell for a Spanish sex scam, paying 124,000 euros ($170,000) in registration fees for the false promise of work as high-class gigolos, police said Tuesday.

A total of 310 men replied to national newspaper job advertisements for a bogus male escort agency, which demanded employment fees in advance, national police said in a statement.

Animal rights campaigners PETA will go wild later this year -- with a pornography website.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has long deployed nearly-nude street activists to promote its campaign against the wearing of leather, fur, or make-up tested on animals.

Philippine diplomats helped two Filipina maids slip out of the home of a relative of deposed Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi after the women asked for a "rescue", according to the foreign ministry.

The pair left the house of one of Gadhafi's nephews and were picked up by embassy staff who were in position in two vehicles, ministry spokesman Raul Hernandez said on Tuesday.

Sydney's city council has voted down plans for a mega-brothel featuring rooms with multiple beds and pool tables, likening the development to a super-sized shopping mall that would threaten competition.

The proposed Aus$12 million (US$12.2 million) extension to the "Stiletto" premises in Sydney's Camperdown, doubling its working rooms to 40 and creating a wing for group bookings, would have made it Australia's biggest brothel.

A suitcase and clothing purported to have belonged to Italian dictator Benito Mussolini and his mistress and obtained by a World War II veteran from western New York have been sold at an auction for more than $5,000.

The Democrat and Chronicle of Rochester reports (http://bit.ly/qx8NTc ) Mussolini's uniform and Claretta Petacci's dress sold for $5,500 during Sunday's auction in Dallas. The auctioneer had estimated the items would fetch $10,000 to $15,000.

Saudi Arabia beheaded a Sudanese man by sword in the western city of Medina on Monday after he was convicted of practicing sorcery, the interior ministry announced.

Abdul Hamid al-Fakki "practiced witchcraft and sorcery," which are illegal under Saudi Arabia's Islamic sharia law, said a ministry statement carried by state news agency SPA.

A Chinese businessman has put down a deposit for a rare bottle of whisky costing nearly $200,000 at a duty-free shop in Singapore's Changi airport, an airport spokesman said Monday.

With a price tag of Sg$250,000 (US$199,400) the 62-year-old bottle of Dalmore single malt is reportedly one of the most expensive ever sold.

About 50 women in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country, donned miniskirts to protest remarks by the Jakarta city governor who blamed a recent gang rape on the victim's choice of clothing.

Fauzi Bowo called on women Friday not to wear miniskirts when riding on public transport in the capital after a 27-year-old woman was attacked in a public minivan early this month.

A heroic pig who survived more than a month buried under rubble after the 2008 earthquake in China's Sichuan province has been successfully cloned, according to a report Sunday.

Scientists in the southern city of Shenzhen performed the experiment on Zhu Jianqiang, or "Strong-Willed Pig", and produced six offspring with DNA identical to their dad, who was hailed as a national hero following his harrowing ordeal, the Sunday Morning Post reported.

Russian billionaire Alexander Lebedev, owner of two leading British newspapers, punched a man in the face during a television debate on the financial crisis to be aired on Sunday.

A clip posted on the NTV television channel's website shows Lebedev, a former KGB agent who has made a fortune in banking, landed a right jab to the face of ex-real estate baron Sergei Polonsky.