Nine Thai couples locked lips Tuesday in hope of setting a new record for the world's longest kiss, but the attempt proved too much for two septuagenarians who dropped out after just one hour.

The participants, who must kiss for more than 50 hours, 25 minutes and one second to enter the Guinness World Records, were forbidden from sitting down and could only go to the bathroom after the first six hours.

Eight feminists flashed their breasts in the heart of Paris's Notre Dame cathedral on Tuesday to celebrate Pope Benedict XVI's shock resignation announcement.

The members of the Femen movement entered the Gothic cathedral dressed in long coats which they whipped off inside while ringing three bells near the altar.

The brother of a Chicago man poisoned with cyanide shortly after winning the lottery said Monday he is the family member who asked authorities to reconsider the initial finding that his sibling had died of natural causes.

Imtiaz Kahn said he had nightmares about his brother before his death and that his suspicions about the death lead him to push coroner's officials to conduct more tests. Urooj Khan, 46, an immigrant from India, died July 20 as he was about to collect his $425,000 in Illinois State Lottery winnings.

A Montana television station's regular programming was interrupted by news of a zombie apocalypse.

The Montana Television Network says hackers broke into the Emergency Alert System of Great Falls affiliate KRTV and its CW station Monday.

"A good roast or a really nice steak - fabulous! Burgers are good too but the way I really like it is raw, minced and served with a garlicky vinaigrette!"

Luc Friedrich is a member of France's dwindling but dedicated band of horsemeat lovers, and it seems the current food fraud scandal engulfing much of Europe is not going to change a habit they see as a gastronomic, not a guilty, secret.

Hundreds of people popped into as many saunas and ice holes as possible on Sunday in an all-day marathon event in Estonia.

A total of 600 participants in four-man teams took part in the annual European Sauna Marathon in the southern town of Otepaa, with a goal of visiting every sauna in record-time.

A southern Philippine town plans to hold funeral rites for the world's largest saltwater crocodile and then preserve its remains in a museum to keep tourists coming and prevent their community from slipping back into obscurity, the town's mayor said Monday.

The 1-ton crocodile was declared dead Sunday a few hours after flipping over with a bloated stomach in a pond in an eco-tourism park in Bunawan town, which had started to draw tourists, revenue and development because of the immense reptile, Mayor Edwin Cox Elorde said.

Would you vote for the sleek pedigree or a cheeky mongrel? The race for the top job in Italy's February vote has taken on a new angle, with rival candidates Mario Monti and Silvio Berlusconi adopting canine friends in a bizarre election ploy.

Three-time premier Berlusconi, whose centre-right party is catching up with the left in the polls, adopted a stray from the streets of Sicily this week and photographs of the pair canoodling in a garden instantly went viral on social networks.

Malawi is to reprint thousands of presidential portraits to add "Doctor" to Joyce Banda's name, the government said Friday, raising eyebrows amid a tough austerity drive.

South Korea's Jeonju University last week awarded Banda an honorary doctorate for her no-nonsense reforms since taking office.

Two thieves who stole Chinese artefacts worth millions of pounds from a British museum and promptly lost them were handed lengthy jail sentences on Friday.

Lee Wildman, 36, was jailed for nine years and 33-year-old Adrian Stanton was handed an eight-year term for their raid on the Oriental Museum in Durham, northwest England, on April 5 last year.