Pakistan has cracked down on "immoral" love chat services offered by mobile phone companies, stifling hopes of illicit romance in the conservative Muslim country where dating is frowned upon.

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) said the ban was enforced last month due to protests from parents and lawmakers, but critics warn it is the latest attempt at creeping censorship.

A French court Wednesday ordered a piggery to compensate a former worker who became deaf partly as a result of the incessant squeals of the animals in his charge.

A court in the western town of Lons-le-Saunier in the Jura region ruled that the Pelizzari group had committed an "inexcusable error" by failing to protect Serge Personeni from a work hazard.

An American blogger annoyed by texting and emailing on smartphones during a movie at the Toronto film festival called police this week.

Alex Billington reportedly first complained to theater managers at the Monday midnight screening of Ti West's "The Sacrament."

A 59-year-old Bulgarian man has swum more than two kilometers (1.25 miles) completely tied up in a bag in a bid to enter into the Guinness World Records book.

Wrapped in an orange, porous bag with his arms and legs strapped to his body, Jane Petkov swam "on his back, like a dolphin" to cross Lake Ohrid in southern Macedonia, said Saso Tockov, one of the event organizers.

An eccentric South African artist has been charged with sexual exhibitionism after a street performance in central Paris in which he tied a rooster to his penis.

Steve Cohen was arrested on Tuesday on a busy public square a stone's throw from the Eiffel Tower.

Around 280 trained hunters, firefighters and municipal officials fanned out across a Japanese city this week to catch a single bad-tempered monkey that was menacing locals.

The male macaque had been terrorizing the people of Hyuga in the far south of the country since late last month, and was blamed for 18 attacks.

Now that's a birthday present: Canada is honoring Superman with seven coins to mark the 75th anniversary of the iconic comic character's creation.

The Royal Canadian Mint said Monday it would be issuing the collector's items -- ranging in face value from 50 cents to $75 -- in gold, silver and cupro-nickel.

A Danish bank worker who was fired for using Facebook to tell late-running customers to "go to hell" has won a dispute with her former employer, her union said Tuesday.

The Danish pensions administrator logged on to the social networking site to vent on December 28 -- the last business day of the year in Denmark -- after being inundated with requests from clients.

Pope Francis no longer has to be chauffeured in popemobiles but can drive around the Vatican himself after a 70-year-old priest gave him his old Renault 4.

The white car is nearly 20 years old and has 170,000 miles (300,000 kilometres) on the clock.

Shares in a Chinese food company became one of the market's hottest stocks on Tuesday after Xi Jinping gave its spicy pickles the presidential stamp of approval.

Xi ate "zhacai", made from the root of the mustard plant, with a bowl of millet porridge on his plane during his current tour of Central Asia, the official news agency Xinhua reported.