Think kindly of the dragon Smaug. Shed a tear for Gollum. And give an orc a hug.

If only they had tucked into the occasional quiche and salad or a touch of smoked salmon, or had a few sessions on a sunbed. How much kinder history would have been to them.

It remains a crime in Britain to call for the abolition of the monarchy after the government admitted Friday it had blundered by including it on a list of repealed laws.

Section three of the Treason Felony Act 1848, which has not been used to prosecute anyone since 1879, was included on a list of 309 obsolete offences to be repealed in the year to May, published by the Ministry of Justice on Thursday.

A coloring book featuring tea party darling Sen. Ted Cruz has become a hot-selling item in the U.S. this holiday season.

The cover features the beaming senator, a Texan who galvanized right-wingers during the budget fight that partially shut down the federal government in October. He points to a tea plant with leaves that say "Gun rights," ''Free Enterprise," and "Lower Taxes." At the very top is a leaf reading "White House."

A provocatively adorned outdoor Christmas tree in central Milan was just too naughty for city officials, who have ordered it denuded of its racy red sex toys.

The city said in an order that the Christmas season, "qualifying as a holiday for children and families, requires sobriety in urban decorations," in particular when using "traditional symbols that distinguish Christmas."

Joseph Ali says onlookers thought he was drunk when he dove into the nighttime waters around a California pier. But he came away with a monster of a lobster.

Ali tells the Orange County Register (http://bit.ly/IQe4r3) he was closing his father's business, Zack's Pier Plaza, on Monday when he saw the ocean was calm and decided to dive for dinner.

Doctors at a British hospital were startled when an upset patient told them that the clock in his ward had announced his time was up, the British Medical Journal (BMJ) reported on Thursday.

"The clock is telling me to die," the doctors quoted the patient as saying in an unusual case report.

"A dry martini. Just hand it to me, and I'll do the shaking myself."

This, according to British doctors, is somewhat how James Bond would have been in real life.

Repetitive migraines lie at the heart of "Siegfried," the second part of Richard Wagner's "Ring" trilogy of operas, German neurologists suggest.

Both the action and the music of "Siegfried" reflect the rhythms and visual disturbance from migraines that used to haunt the composer, they say.

A door-to-door salesperson who ignored a "Do Not Knock" sign to try to win over a gas customer has ended up costing their Australian employers Aus$60,000 (U.S.$53,600).

The Federal Court ordered gas company AGL South Australia and marketing firm CPM Australia to pay the total penalty after an incident in Adelaide November 2011.

In an effort to solve its growing prison shortage, Norway has asked to rent prison space in neighboring Sweden, the Norwegian justice ministry said Thursday.

In a letter sent this week to his Swedish counterpart Beatrice Ask, Norway's Justice Minister Anders Anundsen explained that the situation in his country made it necessary to "look for extraordinary methods."