Sunderland manager Paolo Di Canio has revealed some of the strict rules he has introduced at the club, including the banning of mobile phones and tomato ketchup.

Di Canio succeeded Martin O'Neill in March and has vowed to get tough with his players, who begin their Premier League campaign at home to Fulham later on Saturday.

Whipping up a blackcurrant jus in Wellington's Rimutaka Prison, shaven-headed convict "Pete" rhapsodies about his new-found love of gourmet cooking, the swastika tattoos on his hand blurring as he whisks intently.

"You can get five dishes, five different flavors, from one fish," the New Zealander says. "I thought normal fish all just tasted the same but I've learned a lot."

Authorities in Guyana say smugglers have found yet another way to smuggle cocaine out of the country.

The Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit says a man was caught trying to ship 16 kilograms of the drug to the U.S. in hollowed out okra pods. Unit director James Singh said Thursday it was the first time he's head of someone trying this with okra, which is known as ochro in Guyana. Singh says on a one-to-ten scale he would give the smuggler a "four for innovation."

A Toronto area mechanic who posted a Twitter message seeking marijuana to alleviate boredom at work this week got an unexpected reply -- from police with an apparent sense of humour.

The young man also lost his job after his boss was alerted, Canadian media said Thursday.

Workers scaled an apartment building in Beijing on Friday to demolish a bizarre roof-top villa which captured worldwide attention but was deemed illegal by Chinese authorities.

At least six workers wearing bright orange jackets were visible on the 26-storey building's roof and were dismantling the elaborate house, which was built among rocks and trees.

A Chinese zoo ridiculed for disguising a dog as a lion has shut down temporarily for "rectification", media reported Friday.

The zoo's supposed "African lion" was exposed as a fraud when the dog used as a substitute -- a Tibetan Mastiff -- started barking, the state-run Beijing Youth Daily had reported earlier.

A Chinese zoo's supposed "African lion" was exposed as a fraud when the dog used as a substitute started barking.

The zoo in the People's Park of Luohe, in the central province of Henan, replaced exotic exhibits with common species, according to the state-run Beijing Youth Daily.

Benigno Aquino survived a deadly assassination attempt during his struggle to the top of bare-knuckle Philippine politics, but there is one foe the president cannot beat: flowers.

Aquino's spokeswoman Abigail Valte revealed Thursday the 53-year-old was taking a sick day due to his allergy to flowers.

A Singapore bus driver has been fired after he was caught on video trimming his nails while driving along an expressway.

The 29-second video, posted on the Facebook page "SG Share" on July 26, showed the driver resting his left hand on the steering wheel while trimming the nails with a clipper held in his right hand.

Tracking the flows of China's 263 million migrant workers is a huge challenge, but officials have found the answer in packs of pickled root vegetables.

Zhacai, made from parts of a mustard plant variety, is a cheap and popular dish among Chinese migrant workers, with Fuling the biggest-selling brand in the country.