Italian bloggers have found imaginative ways to dodge a ban on publishing opinion polls ahead of elections -- from referring to candidates as cardinals to commenting the vote like a horse race.

Under Italian law, opinion polls can be carried out but their results cannot be released in the 15 days before elections which got under way on Sunday.

Opponents of Egypt's President Mohamed Morsi are voting to send him where no Islamist leader has gone before: outer space.

Morsi on Saturday was leading the field in Egypt in an online contest sponsored by deodorant makers Axe to send a lucky few on a shuttle operated by space tourism company Space Expedition Corp.

President Raul Castro jokingly said Friday he is going to retire, noting that he is nearly 82 and has the right to stop working like anyone else.

Castro made the comments as Cuba's congress is almost certain to elect him to another term on Sunday.

Adolf Hitler is running for election in India. So is Frankenstein.

The tiny northeast Indian state of Meghalaya has a special fascination for interesting and sometimes controversial names, and the ballot for state elections Saturday is proof.

A Ukrainian television prankster who gatecrashed the Grammys has been warned not to try the same at this weekend's Oscars show, according to a lawyer's letter.

Vitalii Sediuk, who kissed Will Smith at a red carpet event in Moscow last year, was warned he would face prosecution if he tries to attend Sunday's show, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

Police in the U.S. say a 10-year-old boy called police because he didn't want to go to bed.

Police say the boy called just after 8 p.m. Wednesday and told the dispatcher he was reporting his mother because he did not want to go to sleep.

A South Korean man who embezzled more than $4.0 million dollars and had plastic surgery to evade capture, has been arrested after a hostess bar spending spree in Seoul's upmarket Gangnam district.

The 33-year-old, identified as Yoon, was finally tracked down after two of his accomplices were arrested, police said Friday.

A Japanese city devastated by the 2011 tsunami disaster remains mystified more than two weeks after receiving anonymous gifts of gold bars worth over $300,000.

A fish market in Ishinomaki, some 350 kilometers (220 miles) northeast of Tokyo, received a parcel containing gold bars weighing a total of two kilograms (4.4 pounds) in early February, about a month ahead of the disaster's second anniversary on March 11.

Authorities in China are looking to wipe out dingy public toilets with proposed rules to limit the number of flies and flush away bad smells, Beijing said.

Public toilets in China are generally badly maintained, particularly at public transport locations.

China web-users were furious Thursday over plans to tackle pollution with a ban on barbecues, wryly asking if Beijing would stamp out fried food and normal bodily functions in its war on smog.

While many residents have grown tired of donning face-masks or having to stay indoors during prolonged bouts of heavy smog, China's food-loving public say forcing fire-grilled food off the streets is a step too far.