Around 100 bags of "plastic rice" seized in Lagos have turned out to contain real but contaminated rice, authorities said Friday in Nigeria, where prices for the staple have rocketed.

Croatia on Friday announced the discovery of a highly contagious strain of bird flu in poultry at a small family farm on the country's northern border with Hungary.

One of Europe's worst offenders on food waste, Britain is beginning to get its act together thanks to a surge in volunteer initiatives that help the poor as well as creating a bit of seasonal cheer.

"That's what I come out for, to have a little chat... It's not only the food," said Bassia Hamech, 76, as she was served a bowl of hot soup in a kitchen in east London run by a charity called FoodCycle.

Pakistani police on Wednesday caught three men accused of preparing home-made liquor mixed with aftershave that killed 34 people including a fourth suspect after they consumed the toxic brew on Christmas Eve.

It powers everything we do, yet remains one of our biggest mysteries.

Japan began killing some 90,000 chickens on Tuesday to contain another outbreak of a highly contagious strain of avian flu, officials said.

The new drive means more than a million farm birds will have been killed in seven mass culls this season as officials work to prevent the spread of the virulent H5 strain, which has been detected at several farms across the country.

Iran has killed hundreds of thousands of birds in recent weeks as avian flu spreads across seven provinces of the country, officials have reported. 

More than 1,000 wild birds, mostly geese, have been found dead in the Mighan wetland in central Iran, the environmental protection organisation told state news agency IRNA on Monday. 

Dominique was hooked on cocaine and smoked two packs of cigarettes a day until she stumbled onto ayahuasca, a hallucinogenic concoction that she says has changed her life.

The French-American woman, who lives in Los Angeles and did not want her real name used, is among thousands of people across the United States who are increasingly turning to the powerful psychedelic brew from the Amazon to overcome addiction, depression or psychological trauma.

A 67-year-old Greek grandmother has given birth to her daughter's baby girl, becoming the world's oldest such surrogate mother, her medical team said Friday.

Surgeons in Poland said Thursday they had successfully attached a hand from a deceased donor to a man born without one, in what they claimed was a world first.