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.

An Indian high school teacher, with a monthly salary of around $700, was astounded when a routine online check of his bank account showed a balance of almost $10 billion.

Parijat Saha, from the town of Balurghat in West Bengal state, said he had checked his State Bank of India account online last Sunday to confirm reception of a 10,000 rupee ($200) interest payment.

A Taiwanese woman who was allegedly sold into "slavery" as a child returned from the United States to the island Wednesday for a much-anticipated family reunion, officials and media said.

Television images showed the woman, in her 20s and who identified herself as "Isabel", arriving at the northern Taoyuan airport flanked by a group of Taiwanese government officials -- she did not answer questions from reporters.

The stock market will rally strongly in the second half of 2012, much like a dragon rising from the depths, according to a Hong Kong brokerage's annual astrological predictions.

CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets released its annual feng shui index on Wednesday ahead of the Lunar New Year next week that marks the start of the year of the dragon.

A snack called "Nuckin Futs" has got the green light to be sold in Australia after regulators accepted the profanity it parodies was part of everyday speech, according to a report.

The Trade Marks Examiner initially ruled that the name was inappropriate and rejected a trademark application, the Melbourne Herald Sun reported.

A new online game in India called "Angry Brides" which seeks to highlight the problem of illegal dowry demands for women has attracted more than 270,000 fans.

The game by online matchmaker shaadi.com -- inspired by the hugely popular "Angry Birds" game -- sees players attack prospective grooms greedy for dowry with a variety of weapons, from a brick-red stiletto to a broomstick.