The story of a cat who visits his master's tomb and brings him little presents on an almost daily basis a year after the man's death has moved the inhabitants of a village in central Italy.

"He brings little twigs, leaves, toothpicks, plastic cups. A bit of everything really," Renzo Iozzelli's widow Ada told Agence France Presse on Friday from Montagnana, a mountain village near Florence.

"Star Trek" fans rejoiced Friday after Captain James Kirk of the starship Enterprise, or rather the actor who played him on the iconic sci-fi series, swapped tweets with a Canadian astronaut.

"@Cmdr_Hadfield Are you tweeting from space? MBB," William Shatner -- who signs his Twitter messages with shorthand for "my best, Bill" -- asked Chris Hadfield, mission specialist on the International Space Station.

Thai grandmother Nom Prom-on rummages through rubbish bins looking for bottles, cans and paper to trade for food and other goods at a recycling cooperative providing a lifeline for Bangkok's poor.

Riding an old motorcycle with a rubbish cart attached, the 61-year-old and her husband Rai rise early to beat rival scavengers to claim the best of the city's recyclable trash, which they take to a cash-free "zero baht shop".

A monster bluefin tuna sold for a record-breaking $1.8 million in the year's first auction at Japan's Tsukiji fish market on Saturday, nearly three times the previous high set last year.

The 222-kilogram (488-pound) fish, caught off Japan's northern city of Oma, fetched a winning bid of 155.4 million yen (about $1.8 million), said an official at the Tokyo fish market.

A dog left home alone in Austria started a major house fire by switching on an electric hotplate with its paw while pinching food temptingly perched on top, police said Thursday.

The New Year's Day blaze in the western town of Steeg is believed to have started after the paper wrapping on the food then caught fire on the stove, Tyrol state police said.

Tens of thousands of Mexicans wolfed down a 1.9-kilometer (1.2-mile) long king cake on Thursday, polishing it off in less than half-an-hour during the traditional feast in downtown Mexico City.

The Epiphany pastry weighed almost 9.4 tonnes and was made with 4.9 tonnes of flour, 2.8 tonnes of butter, one tonne of sugar and marmalade, hundreds of kilos of candied fruits and more than 43,000 eggs, the city government said.

Disillusioned Slovaks are turning to the power of prayer in the hope of cleaning up politicians widely regarded as corrupt.

More than 400 people have vowed to pray for the politician of their choice for at least five minutes a day for six months since the Internet initiative was launched on Tuesday by Slovakia's Christian Youth Communities Association.

European scientists say they have found further evidence that how you serve food and drink matters hugely in the perception of taste.

Researchers at the Polytechnic University of Valencia and the University of Oxford recruited 57 volunteers and asked them to taste hot chocolate served in plastic cups with four different colors -- white, cream, red and orange with white on the inside.

A new law in Morocco seeks to clamp down on dangerous dogs and their owners who now face up to five years in jail in a country where more than 50,000 dog bite cases are recorded every year.

The text aiming to "protect people against the danger of dogs" was passed unanimously late on Wednesday by a parliamentary committee, and now becomes Morocco's first legislation aimed at tackling the problem.

Already famed for fake designer bags and pirated DVDs, imitation in China may have reached new heights with a set of towers that strongly resemble ones designed by renowned architect Zaha Hadid.

A developer in the southwestern city of Chongqing is putting up buildings that share the distinctive round contours and white stripes of a 39-floor shopping and office complex conceived by the British-Iraqi designer and being built in Beijing.