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SAfrican Opposition Leader Bitten by Rat

South African opposition leader Helen Zille said she has been bitten by a rat outside her home in Cape Town.

"The weirdest thing just happened. I went to fetch the newspapers at the gate when a rat darted out, and bit me on my toe!" the head of the Democratic Alliance, the main opposition group, said on Twitter.

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New Zealanders Toast the End of 'Marmageddon'

Supermarkets across New Zealand stocked up with Marmite for the first time in more than a year Wednesday, as a shortage of the salty spread caused by the Christchurch earthquake came to an end.

In a culinary crisis dubbed "Marmageddon", the country's only Marmite factory closed after sustaining damage in the February 2011 Christchurch quake, halting production of the thick, black concoction.

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Former NBA Star has New Job as Crossing Guard

Retired NBA star Adrian Dantley spent years guarding opponents on the court. Now he's guarding schoolchildren as they cross the street.

Radio station WTOP (http://bit.ly/YlNvyo) reports that Dantley started working as a crossing guard in September. He works an hour a day at Eastern Middle School and New Hampshire Estates Elementary School in Silver Spring, Maryland.

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Minnie Mouse Forsakes Trademark Dots for Lanvin Gowns

Out with the polka dots! Nothing less than specially designed Lanvin gowns will do for Minnie Mouse, who makes her haute couture debut on Saturday at Disneyland near Paris.

Lanvin designer Alber Elbaz, the creator of the outfits, says he always saw in Minnie a hidden "fashionista".

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Fake Bureaucrat Takes China Authorities for Ride

Authorities in China are hunting a man who posed as a high-ranking government official and took part in all-expenses-paid junkets for years despite not holding the post, local media reported.

Middle-aged, clearly well-fed, and clad in the black suits beloved of Chinese bureaucrats, Zhao Xiyong posed as an official from the State Council, China's cabinet, touring factories and local governments, with free banquets thrown in.

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Monitoring Your Kids on Facebook? That's so 2009

Relieved your kids aren't posting embarrassing messages and goofy self-portraits on Facebook? They're probably doing it on Instagram and Snapchat instead.

The number of popular social media sites available on kids' mobile devices has exploded in recent years. The smartest apps now enable kids to chat informally with select groups of friends without bumping up against texting limits and without being monitored by parents, coaches and college admissions officers, who are frequent Facebook posters themselves.

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Survey: Polka-dot Dresses the Rage in N. Korea

Polka-dot dresses and manual threshing machines were among the hottest consumer products in North Korea last year, according to an annual list compiled by a research analyst in South Korea.

The arrival of the boldly-patterned dresses in the top 10 list was down to North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un's wife, Lee Sol-Ju, who was seen wearing them to public functions on state television.

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Speeding U.S. Dad Ignores Police with Baby Coming

A man who was pulled over for speeding as he rushed his pregnant wife to the hospital said he was determined to keep going despite the police lights flashing behind him.

Tyler Rathjen planned to keep going as his wife, Ashley, began giving birth to their son in the passenger seat. But a red light with heavy traffic finally forced him to stop.

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One of Europe's Longest Ice Highways Opens in Estonia

Spring may be around the corner, but in Estonia residents of one tiny island are celebrating the cold with the opening of a 12-kilometer (seven-mile) ice highway over the Baltic Sea that is one of Europe's longest.

"We wait for ice roads every winter because the frozen sea makes our lives much easier," Heldy Polluste, whose husband made the drive from Kihnu island to the mainland over the weekend, told Agence France Presse Monday.

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Rock 'n' Rail: British Transport Minister Makes Album

Britain's junior transport minister Norman Baker is releasing his debut rock album at the age of 55, The Sunday Times newspaper reported.

The Liberal Democrat lawmaker is the lead singer and main lyricist with the Reform Club, a group he originally formed decades earlier.

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