The annual Fourth of July hot dog eating contest was set to roll Thursday in Coney Island, with chomp champs Joey Chestnut and Sonya Thomas defending their respective men's and women's titles.

Chestnut, 29, is a six-time winner who set the record — 68 hot dogs and buns in 10 minutes — in 2009 and tied it last year. Thomas, 45, powered through 45 dogs to take the women's championship last year and also won in 2011, the first year women competed separately.

Finland has given a special baby box to Prince William and his wife Catherine ahead of the birth of their first child, with the contents ranging from infant clothing to bra pads and even condoms, officials said Wednesday.

The maternity package is given to all expectant couples in Finland by the social security agency KELA and includes romper suits, snowsuits and booties in neutral colors that could suit a boy or a girl.

A Czech woman beat the odds this week in the Prague underground when she fell under an oncoming train but then crawled out from between carriages unscathed, police said Tuesday.

The young woman -- who appeared to be dozing on her feet -- fell off the platform into a deep groove between the subway rails, saving her from the impact of the undercarriage zooming by overhead.

A former executive of iconic New York jewelry store Tiffany was arrested on Tuesday for stealing more than $1 million worth of valuables which she later resold, federal prosecutors said.

Ingrid Lederhaas-Okun, Tiffany's former vice-president of product development, swiped 165 items of jewelry between November 2012 and February 2013, when she left the firm.

From chickens catapulted across tables to meals dished up with a generous portion of sexual health advice, Bangkok is doing a roaring trade in unusual dining experiences.

The Thai capital, renowned as much for its commitment to fun as it is for fiery cuisine, has embraced the odd, amusing and bizarre in a bid to lure customers through the door.

Japan's army of dark-suited salarymen are scraping by on a monthly allowance from their wives that is less than half what they got in the 1980s bubble years, a survey has shown.

Despite frequently being the sole breadwinner at home, many Japanese husbands hand over their entire pay packet to the woman of the house, who manages the family's bills and balances the books.

A maintenance worker surprised passers-by near a Chinese railway station when he starting watching a banned porn film, not realizing his computer was connected to a giant screen, state media said Tuesday.

The worker, identified only by his surname Yuan, was supposed to repair the screen, on a building near the main railway station in Jilin in northeast China, the Global Times reported.

Lukasz Kubot may not win the Wimbledon title but he has taken the top prize for the tournament's wackiest victory celebration by dancing the can-can.

The 31-year-old Pole, who faces compatriot Jerzy Janowicz in Wednesday's quarter-finals, performs his version of the high-kicking dance every time he wins a match.

An American doctor has arrived in Vietnam carrying an unlikely piece of luggage: the bones of an arm he amputated in 1966.

Dr. Sam Axelrad flew into the Vietnamese capital, Hanoi, on Saturday from Houston. He was traveling through central Vietnam with his sons and two grandchildren Monday to meet the amputee, Nguyen Quang Hung, a former North Vietnamese soldier.

The British parliament is to spend up to £100,000 (120,000 euros, $150,000) on refurbishing two toilets used by members of the House of Lords and guests, it emerged on Sunday.

A contract put out to tender by the House of Commons authorities says the toilets, installed in 1937, have not been refurbished for 20 years "and have reached the end of their serviceable life".