A prisoner serving 23 years for attempted murder was on the run Thursday after escaping from a penitentiary in Hiroshima clad only in white underwear, Japan's first jailbreak in more than two decades.

Li Guolin was exercising in a prison yard when he stripped off his convict's uniform and used scaffolding erected by builders to climb over a five-meter (16-foot) perimeter fence Wednesday, Kyodo news agency said, citing officials.

Smoking drivers will have to watch their butts in South Africa's tourist draw card Cape Town after a new hotline was launched for motorists to report those who throw cigarette ends out the window.

"We are getting quite a lot of calls on the butt line," said an operator who answered the hotline on Wednesday.

A rare Cuban crocodile met a bemused Pope Benedict XVI in the Vatican on Wednesday, as Rome's Bio Park zoo celebrated its centenary with the eco-friendly pontiff.

A staff member from the zoo -- which has 1,200 animals and is visited by 700,000 people a year -- presented the 60-centimetre (23.6-inch) long crocodylus rhombifer crocodile to the pope, who smiled bravely.

Hong Kong police said Wednesday they had briefly detained a 10-year-old American boy who took his father's Maserati GranTurismo coupe out for a spin.

The boy grabbed the keys from an unlocked drawer in the family's apartment near central Hong Kong, revved the engine and drove off in the two-door car on Monday, the South China Morning Post said.

Once the preserve of rowdy teenagers, game arcades in Japan are rapidly becoming the hippest place to hang out for a whole new generation -- their grandparents.

With plenty of time on their hands and cash in their pockets, well-behaved elderly customers make up a significant and growing number of those prepared to feed coins into machines for a few hours' entertainment.

Celebrity chef Antony Worrall Thompson has apologized for being "stupid and irresponsible" after he was arrested for shoplifting cheese and wine from a supermarket.

Worrall Thompson, 60, who stars in the show "Ready, Steady, Cook", was cautioned by police after he was caught at the Tesco store in the upmarket town of Henley-on-Thames, west of London.

With Europe swimming in debt, Denmark vowed Monday to run a "low-cost" presidency of the European Union and serve tap water during official meetings of the 27-nation bloc.

And dignitaries beware: The Danish government plans to dole out fewer gifts as it caps its budget for the six-month EU presidency at 35 million euros. This compares to the 115 million euros spent by Poland and 85 million euros by Hungary last year.

Authorities in southern Wisconsin are facing a tongue twister thanks to the arrest of Beezow Doo-Doo Zopittybop-Bop-Bop.

The unusually named 30-year-old man was in jail Sunday in Madison. Police say he violated his bail conditions from a previous run-in with the law.

Malaysia's defense ministry on Tuesday blamed the use of Google Translate for the mangled English that appeared on its website sparking online ridicule.

The translations from the Malay language into English included dress guidelines for ministry staff that prohibited "clothes that poke eye" -- a reference to revealing attire.

A New Zealand woman who fooled her family into believing she was pregnant has been charged with abduction after allegedly walking into a hospital and stealing a new-born baby, according to police.

Neha Narayan was arrested after she was found with the baby heading for the hospital car park where her partner was waiting to take her home with what he believed was their own child.