The end is near for the shoe, wheelbarrow or iron in the classic Monopoly game as fans vote Tuesday in the final hours of a contest to determine which token to eliminate and which piece to replace it with.

The eight tokens identify the players and have changed quite a lot since Parker Brothers bought the game from its original designer in 1935. The latest changes mark the first time that fans have had a say on which piece to add and which one to toss.

A long overdue book has finally been returned to the New York Public Library — 55 years late.

The Daily News (http://nydn.us/UwbR9z ) says the biography of a 16th-century priest called "Fire of Francis Xavier" was checked out of the Fort Washington branch in upper Manhattan on April 10, 1958.

A Mexican girl aged nine has given birth to a girl of her own, local authorities and family members said Wednesday.

"The girl was just over eight when she got pregnant. The father is a boy who is 17, but we have not found him, since he ran away," the mother of the girl, identified only as Dafne, told local officials in Jalisco state.

A Saudi cleric has said baby girls should be veiled to avoid sexual harassment, in remarks broadcast on television that sparked outrage in the conservative kingdom.

"Girls should wear the veil from the age of two," said Abdullah Daoud on Islamic television al-Majd, adding that Saudis should follow the example of South Asian countries.

A Chinese police chief is alleged to have had at least 192 houses and a fake identity card, state media said Tuesday, the latest in a number of similar cases that have sparked outrage online.

Zhao Haibin, a senior police official in Lufeng in the southern province of Guangdong, was reported by a businessman to have accumulated the properties under his name and his company's, the Guangzhou Daily said.

Police in Germany say someone dressed as the Cookie Monster has sent a second note regarding a stolen cookie sculpture — this time saying he wants to return it.

But officials aren't sure the person in the photo actually stole the 20-kilogram (44 pound), century-old sculpture.

A picture of North Korea's Kim Jong-Un with a smartphone has triggered fevered speculation about which brand is favoured by the leader of one of the world's most repressive nations.

The photo released by the North's state media showed Kim presiding over a meeting with top national security advisers last week -- a meeting believed to have been focused on Pyongyang's threat to conduct an imminent nuclear test.

Outspoken U.S. Senator John McCain raised eyebrows online Monday when he compared Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to a monkey that the Islamic republic recently launched into space.

"So Ahmadinejad wants to be first Iranian in space - wasn't he just there last week?" said a message on McCain's official Twitter feed, followed by the headline and link to a recent story: "Iran launches monkey into space."

Women in Paris can finally wear trousers without fear of criminal prosecution after the government said a more than 200-year-old ban no longer had any legal effect.

Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, France's minister of women's rights, said in a statement that the ban, imposed on November 17, 1800, was incompatible with modern French values and laws.

Democracy champion Aung San Suu Kyi revealed her love of JK Rowling's Harry Potter books as she waxed lyrical about her favorite reads at Myanmar's first international literary festival on Saturday.

The Nobel laureate, who spent years under house arrest under Myanmar's former junta, joked that her "courage" in the face of state repression paled in comparison to the heroes of the best-selling fantasy series.