Unable to get to that must-see tourist site but can't bear for your teddy to miss out? Then Japan has just the thing for you -- a travel agency that takes stuffed toys on package tours and even provides the holiday snaps to prove it.

Tokyo-based Unagi (Eel) Travel has a range of offers to suit every cuddly companion's purse.

Travelers left behind a record $531,395.22 in loose change at security checkpoints in U.S. airports in fiscal 2012, the Transportation Security Administration says.

In a report to Congress, seen by the Washington Post, the TSA said more than $10,000 in change was forgotten at each of 13 major airports in such cities as New York, Dallas, Atlanta and San Francisco.

A pastry chef who stunned Singapore marathon organizers by being the first local runner across the finish line admitted he cheated -- and has been doing so for years, a report said Thursday.

Father-of-one Tam Chua Puh, 43, caused consternation when he finished Sunday's race several minutes ahead of Singapore's finest distance athletes in a time of 2hr 46min.

Traditional Japanese washoku cooking methods, Korean kimchi-making, millennia-old Georgian wine-producing techniques and the Mediterranean diet were among 14 new entries added to UNESCO's "intangible heritage" list.

Envoys picked the new listings of traditional cultural activities worthy of preservation at a meeting in the Azerbaijani capital Baku, UNESCO said in a statement late Wednesday.

An Australian surfer received an unusual diagnosis when he went to hospital with cuts to his right hand and a gash on his leg -- shark attack.

The 26-year-old man was surfing late Thursday at Shelly Beach, near Port Macquarie on the country's east coast, when he felt something hit his right hand.

Pope Francis has become the latest figure in Rome's wax museum with a statue depicting the pontiff smiling in the iconic moment when he appeared on the balcony of St Peter's Basilica after his election.

Visitors have been asking for months when the Francis statue would go on display but the museum's director, Fernando Canini, told Agence France Presse that he had waited for an official verbal go-ahead from the Vatican.

Japanese police said Thursday they have arrested a woman for calling them more than 15,000 times over a six-month period.

Authorities repeatedly visited the 44-year-old and asked her to cease and desist.

A flood of 20,000 applications for jobs at a new Ikea store in Spain crashed the company's Internet server, forcing it to suspend the hiring process, the Swedish furniture giant said on Wednesday.

The company posted an online questionnaire on Monday for applicants to work at the store, due to open early next year in Alfafar in the eastern region of Valencia where the unemployment rate is over 28 percent.

A wild bear spotted by border guards crossing into Hungary from Serbia on Tuesday probably traveled hundreds of kilometers in search of food, an expert said.

The flat Hungarian plain is not a natural habitat for bears, but the animal could have walked a long distance to get there, wildlife expert Balint Kuli told the Index.hu internet portal.

A Czech man was so intent on doing right by his lenders that he robbed a bank, before turning himself into the police to pay off his debt to society.

The 48-year-old stole tens of thousands of koruna (hundreds of euros, dollars) from a bank in a Prague suburb, police spokesman Tomas Hulan told Agence France Presse.