Cubans braced Monday for a clampdown on the flow of car tires, flat-screen televisions, blue jeans and shampoo in the bags of travelers who haul eye-popping amounts of foreign-bought merchandise to an island where consumer goods are frequently shoddy, scarce and expensive.

Hundreds of thousands of Cubans and Cuban-Americans fly to and from the island each year thanks to the easing of travel restrictions by the U.S. and Cuban governments over the last five years. Their Cuba-bound checked baggage has become a continuous airlift that moves nearly $2 billion of products ranging from razor blades to rice cookers. The baggage carousels at Cuba's airports often look like they're disgorging the contents of an entire Wal-Mart or Target store. Many families bring special trailers to carry the bags of their returning family, which often weigh many hundreds of pounds and include items such as bicycles and flat-screen TVs.

"Wizard of Oz" heroine Dorothy only had to click her ruby red slippers together and they would spirit her home to Kansas.

Decorated with marigolds and ribbons, 108 toilets unveiled in a tragedy-hit village are a small step in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's push to end open-air defecation for impoverished Indian women.

A group of Japanese porn actresses raised tens of thousands of dollars at the weekend by having their breasts squeezed by fans at a "Boob Aid" charity event for AIDS prevention.

A judge is suggesting a Russian tourist who climbed the Brooklyn Bridge be sentenced to community service — like cleaning a bridge.

Yaroslav Kolchin was arrested Sunday after he climbed to the top of the bridge to take pictures. He was charged with reckless endangerment, trespassing and disorderly conduct.

Insults, egg-throwing and rage: the campaign ahead of Scotland's independence referendum is heating up, even forcing an intervention by British Prime Minister David Cameron.

"There's nothing wrong with a bit of heckling but throwing things isn't necessarily part of the democratic process," Cameron said on Friday, after a "No" campaigner was pelted with eggs.

Myanmar's first international beauty queen has absconded with her $100,000 crown after being stripped of her title for being rude and dishonest, organizers said Friday.

May Myat Noe's photograph was blacked out on the Miss Asia Pacific World website, the word "dethroned" stamped alongside her name.

Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi handed out ice creams to journalists at his official residence Friday in a lighthearted response to a cover of the Economist weekly showing him on a sinking ship, cone in hand.

Shortly after presiding over a cabinet meeting, Renzi called a press conference where a master ice cream maker had been called in to help him with the stunt.

A Russian bank is offering customers the ultimate fluffy extra with their mortgage -- the free loan of a cat to bring good luck to their new home.

Sberbank, Russia's largest lender, is aiming to beat its competitors by a whisker by offering 30 mortgage holders the choice of ten different cats, ranging from hairless Sphynx cat Kuzya to Siamese Iriska as well as several moggies of indeterminate origin.

A German Green party politician who poured a bucket of ice water over his head for charity has caused an online stir by slipping in a quiet call to legalise marijuana.

Party co-leader Cem Ozdemir, 48, joined thousands worldwide when he doused himself in freezing water for an online video clip to raise awareness of the neurodegenerative Lou Gehrig's disease or ALS.