French authorities have presented a convicted heroin dealer with an 80,000-euro tax bill on his earnings ... after allowing for his personal consumption and travel expenses.

The dealer, currently in prison in Nancy in eastern France, recently received a demand for payment based on his supposed 2008-11 earnings, his lawyer Samira Boudiba told Agence France Presse.

An escaped wolf sparked panic in the unlikely surroundings of southern England on Tuesday after a pack of five animals escaped from a zoo.

The timber wolves got through a damaged fence in their enclosure at Colchester Zoo to the east of London in the early hours of the morning.

A Lithuanian artist who angered Malaysian officials with a street mural depicting a knife-wielding Lego robber has found unlikely admirers across the border in graffiti-averse Singapore for his works on a softer theme.

Ernest Zacharevic, who has been likened to British graffiti artist Banksy, has seen photos of his murals depicting children playing go viral on Facebook as Singaporeans unused to seeing art on outdoor walls expressed their approval.

Japanese sports officials on Tuesday bowed to growing criticism that a massive stadium planned for the 2020 Olympics was too big and costly, saying they would shrink the building's area.

The proposed stadium, designed by London-based Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid, is intended to occupy a spot in west Tokyo currently occupied by the national stadium, an area with numerous parks and a large Shinto shrine.

President Barack Obama will symbolically "pardon" two turkeys Wednesday on the eve of the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, in what has become an annual White House rite.

The two birds, named "Caramel" and "Popcorn," will have their 15 minutes of fame in the White House Rose Garden where they will win a reprieve from the "leader of the free world" before dozens of reporters and photographers.

Japanese police have arrested a man after a teacher in his son's school shot a chair in the staff room with the father's revolver, officials and reports said Tuesday.

Staff at the junior high school in Shime, western Japan, confiscated the weapon from the boy last Wednesday, believing it to be a dummy, and kept it in the communal office.

More than one million people took China's national civil service exam at the weekend in a modern version of an age-old rite, but faced huge odds against clinching one of the few government jobs available.

A total of 1.12 million took the National Public Servant Exam, according to figures from the State Administration of Civil Service figures.

A Slovak pensioner has opened a zoo like no other: one filled with dozens of abandoned stuffed animals.

Tibor Marko, a 70-year-old retired construction worker and grandfather, told Agence France Presse the idea behind his inanimate menagerie sprang from his own reluctance to dispose of his adult children's teddy-bears.

A Chinese thief painstakingly wrote out 11 pages of telephone numbers from a stolen iPhone and sent them to the owner, state media said Monday.

The pickpocket is believed to have taken the Apple handset from Zou Bin when they shared a taxi, the Xinhua news agency said.

More than 7,000 "zombies" crammed Mexico City's streets Saturday for the popular Zombie Walk Mexico, celebrating connections with the dead.

Decked out in masks and costumes, participants brought out their best fake blood and makeup for a tongue-in-cheek walk with fear, one of several such events internationally.