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.

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard Thursday weighed into the debate about whether the world will end on December 21 under the Mayan calendar in a spoof video about Korean pop and flesh-eating zombies.

In a one-minute video address recorded for the youth radio station Triple J, a sombre-looking Gillard said the pending apocalypse was at hand despite there being no proof found by the "best and brightest" government scientists.

Prostitutes in the northern Malawian city of Mzuzu are accused of killing two clients by drowning them in a dam after they failed to pay for sex, police said on Tuesday.

"After a long time of drinking, the deceased had sexual intercourse with the sex workers and failed to settle the bill," police spokesperson Norah Chimwala told Agence France Presse.

A man who climbed naked onto an equestrian statue in London's government district, ripped off its sword and bit it has been sentenced to 12 weeks in jail.

Dan Motrescu brought central London traffic to a standstill when he mounted the bronze statue of the 19th-century Duke of Cambridge on Nov. 23.

Canadian author Nancy Huston was on Tuesday awarded what has been dubbed Britain's "most dreaded literary prize" for penning the most cringeworthy erotic description of 2012.

After the so-called "mummy porn" phenomenon gripped the literary world -- with erotic novel "Fifty Shades of Grey" topping international best-seller lists -- eight writers were on the shortlist in the not-so-prestigious Bad Sex in Fiction Award's 20th year.