Stick your head in a sewer in the Colombian city of Medellin and you'll find the cozy home of Miguel Restrepo and his wife, two happy underground squatters, and their dog Blackie.

Their digs are too small to stand up in, and it measures just three by two meters (10 by 7 feet). But somehow they have fitted it with a kitchen, a TV and a tile floor.

Floridians keen to protect the fragile ecosystem of the Everglades will have their mettle tested next month as the wildlife service seeks help in eradicating the giant Burmese python.

The public has been asked to join in a month-long hunt for the invasive species, which, lacking natural predators, snacks on native birds, deer, bobcats and other large animals, some of them protected.

A lucky player in Arizona, a married man in his 30s, has claimed the second winning ticket in the U.S. Powerball lottery's near-record jackpot of $587.5 million, organizers said Friday.

The unidentified man, who said he would like to keep working, had only played the lottery twice in the last year when he struck lucky with tickets bought at the last minute last week, winning him $192 million.

In the lush hills of northern Thailand, a herd of 20 elephants is helping to excrete some of the world's most expensive coffee.

Trumpeted as earthy in flavor and smooth on the palate, the exotic new brew is made from beans eaten by Thai elephants and plucked a day later from their dung. A gut reaction inside the elephant creates what its founder calls the coffee's unique taste.

Pot smokers lit up in Washington state Thursday as recreational marijuana became legal in a historic first for the United States, clouded by the fact that federal law still bans the practice.

Midnight pot parties were reported across the western U.S. state as a new law came into force following a November 6 referendum to legalize private consumption of marijuana for recreational use.

Mathematics has provided an answer for those striving for the perfect Christmas tree, Britain's University of Sheffield says.

The university's Maths Society was set the challenge of decorating a tree so that greenery and glitz are in harmonious proportion, resolving the problem of a tree that is either too barren or gaudy.

Rather than chasing cars, dogs in New Zealand are being taught to drive them -- steering, pedals and all -- in a heartwarming project aimed at increasing pet adoptions from animal shelters.

Animal trainer Mark Vette has spent two months training three cross-breed rescue dogs from the Auckland SPCA to drive a modified Mini as a way of proving that even unwanted canines can be taught to perform complex tasks.

Residents of a sleepy French village in Bordeaux have been left dumbfounded after discovering their local 18th-century chateau was completely bulldozed "by mistake."

The mayor's office in Yvrac said Wednesday that workers who were hired to renovate the grand 13,000-square-meter (140,000-square-foot) manor and raze a small building on the same estate in southwest France mixed them up.

Malaysia's government will offer training to lawmakers to teach them how to avoid corruption, a key issue ahead of national elections that must be held by the middle of next year.

Malaysia's ruling party has vowed to crack down on graft, which critics say is rampant and was a major factor in the last vote held in 2008 that saw the party suffer unprecedented losses.

An apparent North Korean claim to have uncovered a "unicorn's lair" that created an Internet storm was partly the result of mistranslation by Pyongyang's much-mocked propaganda machine.

In a report carried on its English service last week, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) cited archaeologists who "reconfirmed" the discovery of "a lair of the unicorn" ridden by King Tongmyong.