Brazil's well-heeled socialites swear by them. Legions of slum-dwellers from the country's hillside "favelas" don them almost every day. Minimum wage earners behind juice bar counters use them, as do newly minted millionaires and, alarmingly, construction workers.

In Brazil, literally everyone wears Havaianas, the now world-famous brand of rubber and plastic flip-flops that's celebrating its 50th birthday this year.

Three Singaporean teenagers are facing the prospect of up to seven years behind bars for allegedly stealing school buses to go on joyrides, the Straits Times reported Wednesday.

A police statement said the three boys, aged 15 to 17, were arrested Monday after investigations showed they were the behind the theft of two school buses on an industrial estate.

New Yorkers gave a big sendoff to "Queen of Soul Food" Sylvia Woods, whose famed Harlem restaurant served everybody from Muhammad Ali to Bill Clinton, ahead of her burial Wednesday.

Mourners flocked to a historic African American church in Harlem where Woods, who died last week at 86, lay in an open coffin Tuesday, surrounded by white roses.

Barack Obama can't stand beetroot, artichokes are off the menu at France's presidential palace and Vladimir Putin does not take any chances with dishes that emerge from the Kremlin kitchens.

Those were just a few of the culinary titbits to emerge from the latest reunion of the select club of chefs who ply their trade on behalf of some of the most powerful men and women on the planet.

A radio signal being transmitted out of a submarine base is likely behind reports of garage doors mysteriously failing to open and close in southeastern Connecticut, the U.S. Navy said Monday.

The signal is part of the Enterprise Land Mobile Radio system, which is used by the military to coordinate responses with civil emergency workers, said Chris Zendan, a spokesman for submarine base in Groton.

Megaupload boss Kim Dotcom has launched an online song attacking U.S. President Barack Obama and urging supporters not to vote for the U.S. leader, who he accuses of trampling on Internet freedom.

In a song titled "Mr. President" released on YouTube, the self-styled cyber freedom fighter, who allegedly masterminded a massive online piracy business, compares himself to U.S. civil rights campaigner Martin Luther King.

A raffle will determine which civil servants in a small Argentine town will receive their pay first, due to insufficient funds, its mayor announced Monday.

"We will draw lots to decide the (order) of payment," said mayor of Bialet Masse, Gustavo Pueyo, in a broadcast from Buenos Aires private radio station Radio Mitre.

A German pensioner got more than she bargained for when she lifted up her toilet seat to find a meter-long (three-foot-long) python staring up at her, police said on Monday.

The 74-year-old from Schwanstetten in southern Germany immediately called the police, who attempted to flush the serpent from its hiding place.

Latvian flag-carrier airBaltic on Monday announced plans to offer castles in the air by selling real estate to passengers as they fly.

Interested travellers can buy a voucher for 30 euros ($36), which the airline says will save them up to 9,500 euros when they sign on the dotted line for a real estate purchase with a partner broker.

Finding it hard to keep up the passion in a long-distance relationship? Help might be on the way.

A robotics professor in Singapore has invented a gadget equipped with motion-sensitive electronic "lips" that allow amorous but absent couples to exchange long-distance smooches via the Internet.