Pope Francis has become the latest figure in Rome's wax museum with a statue depicting the pontiff smiling in the iconic moment when he appeared on the balcony of St Peter's Basilica after his election.

Visitors have been asking for months when the Francis statue would go on display but the museum's director, Fernando Canini, told Agence France Presse that he had waited for an official verbal go-ahead from the Vatican.

Japanese police said Thursday they have arrested a woman for calling them more than 15,000 times over a six-month period.

Authorities repeatedly visited the 44-year-old and asked her to cease and desist.

A flood of 20,000 applications for jobs at a new Ikea store in Spain crashed the company's Internet server, forcing it to suspend the hiring process, the Swedish furniture giant said on Wednesday.

The company posted an online questionnaire on Monday for applicants to work at the store, due to open early next year in Alfafar in the eastern region of Valencia where the unemployment rate is over 28 percent.

A wild bear spotted by border guards crossing into Hungary from Serbia on Tuesday probably traveled hundreds of kilometers in search of food, an expert said.

The flat Hungarian plain is not a natural habitat for bears, but the animal could have walked a long distance to get there, wildlife expert Balint Kuli told the Index.hu internet portal.

A Czech man was so intent on doing right by his lenders that he robbed a bank, before turning himself into the police to pay off his debt to society.

The 48-year-old stole tens of thousands of koruna (hundreds of euros, dollars) from a bank in a Prague suburb, police spokesman Tomas Hulan told Agence France Presse.

Social workers in a wealthy Copenhagen neighborhood have begun making house calls to wake up students with high rates of absenteeism, sparking accusations that Denmark's welfare state has become too intrusive.

"There have been conflicts, but the people we've sent out are trained to handle situations like that. Of course there's been resistance," said Barbro Lundqvist, a social worker in the upscale Oesterbro district.

Here's a friendly reminder from the Pentagon police chief: please fill out the proper forms before you bring a bomb to work.

The advice came after security guards at the Defense Department's entrance discovered parts of a disabled homemade bomb on a civilian entering the building last month, officials said.

The much-anticipated "Geneva II" Syrian peace talks might not be held in Geneva due to insufficient hotel availability, U.N.-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi said in an interview broadcast Tuesday.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon finally set a date last week for the peace conference, which has been repeatedly postponed since June and is now set to kick off on January 22.

A Biblically-named restaurant in China where patrons can pay whatever they want -- or nothing at all -- has shown that while loving your neighbor may be laudable, it is a risky business model.

The "Five Loaves and Two Fish" restaurant, named for the story of Jesus feeding the five thousand, has been serving up hot meals and coffee daily to a packed house in Fuzhou since it opened its doors in August.

Italian police said Monday they had busted a ring of smugglers who attempted to traffic cocaine from Latin America to Europe by hiding it in surf boards and a sailing boat.

The police said they had arrested 19 people -- 16 Italians, 2 Peruvians and a Columbian. In all, 24 people are under investigation.