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Champagne Producer Strikes Gold

A French champagne producer literally hit gold when workers doing up an old building on his property brought down a shower of U.S. coins hidden in the rafters.

Francois Lange, the head of the Alexandre Bonnet champagne-producing firm, in this eastern French village on Tuesday described the treasure trove as one consisting of 497 gold coins -- with a face value of 20 dollars each -- minted between 1851 and 1928 and worth today about 750,000 euros (980,000 dollars).

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Syrian Activists Resort to Pigeons to Communicate

Cut off by a relentless barrage of government shelling, activists in the besieged Syrian city of Homs have reverted to the age-old practice of using carrier pigeons to communicate with each other.

"From the activists in Old Homs (district) to those in Baba Amr, please tell us what you need in terms of supplies, medicine and food," reads one message attached to a pigeon's leg.

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Dad Plays Porn Instead of 'Smurfs' at Kid's Party

Police aren't filing charges against a father who briefly played a pornographic video instead of "The Smurfs" at his child's birthday party.

Tremonton Police Chief Dave Nance tells the Standard-Examiner of Ogden the man had rented a copy of "The Smurfs" from a kiosk and loaded the disc into his laptop. But when he turned the projector on for the children, pornographic images flashed on the screen.

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Dog of Ancient Aztecs New Kid in Town at U.S. Show

It has been around for over 3,000 years, but Mexico's famous, usually hairless, "Xolo" dog is making a big splash as a "new breed" at the Westminster Kennel Club dog show here this week.

Tiny Chabella, descended from a breed the Aztecs considered sacred, is representing the Xoloitzcuintli (which means "hairless dog" or more broadly "dog of the god Xolotl") for the first time at the show.

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Spartan Boot Camp for Rio's Carnival King

King Momo, the Rio Carnival's symbol of overweight excess, has employed a personal trainer and a nutritionist as he goes to drastic lengths to whip himself into shape for the festivities.

Milton Junior, who weighs in at 160 kilograms (352 pounds) and stands 1.84 meters (six feet three inches) tall, knows what he is in for as this will be his fourth year playing the Brazilian city's carnival king.

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Lioness Kills South African Zoo Employee

A lioness has attacked and killed a South African zoo employee at a rural lion farm, a spokeswoman said Tuesday.

"Apparently he was either feeding or cleaning an enclosure when he was attacked by a lioness," Johannesburg Zoo spokeswoman Letta Madlala told Agence France Presse.

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UAE Islamic Love Guru Urges Women to Enjoy Sex

Emirati love guru Widad Lootah is not your typical marriage counselor. She is an ultra-conservative Muslim who wears the full veil and talks a lot about sex, often quoting the Muslim holy book the Koran.

On the eve of Valentine's day, Lootah is calling on Muslim and Arab women everywhere to "embrace love and love making."

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China Zoo Plans Valentine Wedding for Deer and Ram

A Chinese zoo is to hold a Valentine's Day wedding for a male sheep and a female deer whose unconventional relationship captured the public imagination, the official Xinhua news agency said Monday.

Visitors have flooded to the wildlife park in the southwestern province of Yunnan to see the sheep, whose Chinese name Changmao means long hair, and the deer, Chunzi (pure), after zookeepers revealed online that the pair had begun mating.

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Carnival Goes to The Dogs with Rio Pet Parade

Most pre-Carnival street parties in Brazil are all about samba, but the moves on display at Sunday's Blocao parade were focused more on wagging and strategic sniffing than on fancy footwork.

Hundreds of decked-out dogs — and a few brave cats — got in on the Carnival fun at Rio de Janeiro's annual pet-friendly parade: Labradors in pink tutus or engineers' overalls cavorted with Maltese terriers with fairy wings, and poodles in superheros' capes sniffed sausage dogs dressed up as Salome, with sequin-covered harem pants.

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Statue of Carla Bruni as a Worker Angers France

A French mayor's plan to erect a statue of President Nicolas Sarkozy's former supermodel wife Carla Bruni in worker's attire has angered the opposition and embarrassed the first lady.

Jacques Martin, the mayor of Nogent-sur-Marne to the east of Paris and member of Sarkozy's UMP party, commissioned the statue to honor the mostly Italian immigrant women who used to work at a feather factory in the town.

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