Having a baby in the "Year of the Dragon" is a dream come true for many ethnic Chinese who see the zodiac as an auspicious and powerful portent. But for some Hong Kong mothers, it's a nightmare.

Tens of thousands of pregnant mainlanders come to Hong Kong to give birth every year, taking up limited beds in maternity wards and pushing up delivery costs.

The parents of Prince William's wife Catherine have launched a range of outfits for "adult occasions" on their party goods website, a British tabloid said Saturday.

The Party Pieces firm, owned by the Duchess of Cambridge's parents Michael and Carole Middleton, offers a mini-skirted French maid outfit and a female pirate fancy dress costume under a section entitled adult occasions.

Canada's military -- facing belt-tightening, a spy scandal and having recently completed a major combat mission in Afghanistan -- on Friday said it wanted 20,000 stress balls, but then abruptly backtracked.

A website that advertises government contracts said the malleable, hand-squeezable items designed to relieve anxiety and frustration were needed by the end of March, before the start of a new fiscal year.

Japanese games maker Sega is pushing beyond living rooms and barging into bar bathrooms with "Toylet" devices that are played by speed and volume of urine.

The games use urinals fitted with sensors and small digital displays placed at eye level.

An Austrian pilot program to improve educational performance by using technology to encourage the airing of stuffy classrooms is proving to be popular with schools, organizers said Friday.

The "Luft zum Lernen" ("Air to Learn") initiative in the southern province of Carinthia has so far attracted interest from 32 schools with a total of 160 classes in the area, state schools chief Walter Ebner told reporters.

Iran's police have vowed to crack down on stores that defy a ban on selling U.S.-made Barbie dolls, considered contraband in the Islamic republic, the Mehr news agency reported Friday.

"Stores that are selling these dolls are committing an offence and the police will act against them," an unnamed police official was quoted as saying.

Pakistan police have arrested a man who spent three years posing as a general to grab land and solicit favors from the government in a country where the military holds formidable power, police said Friday.

Maqsood Shah, 52, was detained Thursday near an army area in eastern Karachi as he strolled in uniform to meet a government official in order to clinch approval for an illegal land transfer, officials said.

Police called out when an alarm went off after hours at a northern German bank found the culprit was -- a small spider.

Having initially found nothing untoward at the bank in Lower Saxony state, officers called the bank's caretaker to be on the safe side and went inside to investigate, they said Thursday.

North Korean refugees living in South Korea launched balloons carrying cakes across the heavily fortified border on Friday to help their former compatriots celebrate the Lunar New Year holiday.

Most balloons dispatched across the frontier by activists carry propaganda leaflets calling for the overthrow of the North's regime.

Britain's biggest police force has spent more than £35,000 ($54,000, 42,000 euros) on finding out the time from an automated clock service over the past two years, figures showed Wednesday.

London's Metropolitan Police also spent more than £200,000 calling directory services for contact numbers, at a time when forces across Britain are sacking tens of thousands of staff under an austerity drive.