Spain's shock elimination from the World Cup Saturday attracted scrutiny from North Korean state media which more usually runs vitriolic attacks on the country's enemies and glowing reports on the activities of leader Kim Jong-Un.

North Korean fans said Spain's intricate "tiki-taka" passing style was "worn-out" after the footballing giants' early exit from the tournament, the Korean Central News Agency reported.

Russian women may soon undergo a dramatic makeover if a Kremlin-friendly lawmaker has his way and pushes through a ban on a fashion item they perhaps cherish the most: high heels.

Oleg Mikheyev, a lawmaker with pro-Kremlin A Just Russia party, says vertiginous heels as well as trainers, ballet flats and men's loafers are bad for people's health and it's time to do something about it.

Italy striker Mario Balotelli joked on Thursday that if his side rescue England's chances of World Cup qualification by beating Costa Rica, he expects a kiss from British monarch Queen Elizabeth II.

England's 2-1 loss to Uruguay in Sao Paulo left them on the verge of elimination and they need Italy to beat Costa Rica in Recife on Friday if they are to stand any chance of reaching the last 16.

A photo of France's foreign minister Laurent Fabius posing as a dapper weather man to raise awareness of a major climate conference was instantly hijacked and ridiculed Thursday by amused netizens.

Wearing black trousers, a smart white shirt and bow tie, Fabius smiles slightly as he points to a weather map on the front cover of the weekly Le Parisien Magazine, due out on Friday but part of which is already online.

A New Zealand-based photographer attempting to fly a drone above Beijing's ancient Forbidden City -- which sits next to China's top-secret leadership compound -- says he has had his plans thwarted by police.

Trey Ratcliff, who used a camera attached to a remote-controlled helicopter near the popular tourist site and former residence of China's emperors, said on his website that he was briefly detained by police.

Swapping shirts has long been a football ritual, but Croatia's Ivan Rakitic and Cameroon's Stephane Mbia went further and swapped shorts after their countries' World Cup game.

The two former Sevilla teammates exchanged shirts in the middle of the pitch in Manaus after Croatia beat Cameroon 4-0 in a stormy Group A encounter.

A curious bear caused a momentarily delay in an American Legion baseball game this week in Alaska's capital.

The black bear was captured by still and video cameras walking along the outfield fence Sunday during a game between Juneau and West Anchorage.

In what truly epitomized the title of his TV show, "My Cat From Hell," feline behaviorist Jackson Galaxy is calling his attempt to tame the Portland cat notorious for attacking a baby and boxing his panicked owners into a bedroom "the hardest case I have ever worked."

It got more difficult after the happy ending for the cat named Lux soon unraveled.

An Australian funeral director had to store the body of a 200-kilogram (441-pound) man in her car overnight after a morgue refused it for being too big, reports said Thursday.

Joanne Cummings said she had to drive for two hours back home with the corpse in her hearse, with the air-con going full blast to keep it cool.

Japan is to dispatch experts to Bhutan to help the tiny Himalayan kingdom boost the accuracy of the way it measures happiness, an official said Thursday.

Unlike other countries' focus on gross domestic product, Bhutan determines how well it is working by plotting "Gross National Happiness", or GNH.