A 64-year-old Japanese man in a blond wig robbed a Tokyo cake shop of nearly $10,000 before being brought down by store staff armed with laundry poles.

The jobless man used a survival knife to force an 18-year-old member of staff to hand over the cash, Jiji Press said Monday.

Iran has banned a popular computer game, "Battlefield 3", depicting U.S. armor and aircraft launching an assault on Tehran, an Iranian IT magazine reported.

"All computer stores are prohibited from selling this illegal game," an unnamed deputy with the security and intelligence division of Iran's police said in a statement carried by the Asr-e Ertebat weekly.

South Korea's president has turned down the thermostat in his office and donned warmer underwear to save energy, he said Monday, urging fellow citizens to do the same to avoid a supply shortage.

The warmer underwear was initially uncomfortable, Lee Myung-Bak disclosed in a fortnightly radio address. "But after a while, I got used to it, and now I am very warm and comfortable wearing it," he said.

A hospital in Berlin announced Friday the birth of a super-size baby boy, weighing in at six kilograms (13.2 pounds), whose 40-year-old experienced mother had a natural birth for her 14th child.

"According to our research, there has never been a child of such heavy weight born without a (caesarean) operation in Germany," said Dr Wolfgang Henrich, head of the neo-natal unit at the hospital, in a statement.

Dutch astronaut Andre Kuipers will have a special treat waiting for him in orbit when he arrives in space next month: five kilograms of Amsterdam's finest cheese, its maker said Saturday.

The 53-year-old Kuipers is due to blast off on board a Soyuz rocket on December 21 with two other astronauts for a five-month-mission on board the International Space Station.

Nearly 10,000 people dressed as zombies marched in Mexico's capital Saturday for a "Zombie Walk," breaking a Guinness record for the largest gathering of undead, organizers said.

The more than 9,600 participants gathered at Mexico City's Monument to the Revolution, with blood on their faces and burnt or torn clothing, before marching silently to Zocalo square.

A Chinese firm has decided Scorpios and Virgos are too moody and critical, telling job seekers with those star signs they need not apply. Capricorns, Pisces and Libras, on the other hand, are welcome.

The unusual requirements are part of a job ad posted at a university in the central city of Wuhuan by an English language training company, and have generated a storm of online controversy since they were uncovered this week.

Spain's 73-year-old King Juan Carlos donned sunglasses at an official ceremony Thursday to hide a black eye inflicted by a door knob.

"He was hit by a door knob," said a spokesman for the royal family, insisting that it was an unimportant accident on Tuesday that had no impact on the monarch's engagements.

A teenage burglar in Britain wrote to his victims telling them he was not sorry and they were to blame because they had left their curtains open and a window unlocked, it was revealed Thursday.

"To be honest I'm not bothered or sorry about the fact that I burgled your house," the 16-year-old boy wrote to his victims, before offering to "run through the dumb mistakes you made", according to The Times.

Italian record stores are not exactly rushing to stock up on a new album of love songs written by former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, but the irrepressible lyricist apparently has no plans to stop.

"This is a hobby for him and he is not giving it up. He is a passionate, romantic person. He writes love songs and he's good at it," Mariano Apicella, the Neapolitan crooner who sings the billionaire's lyrics, told Agence France Presse.