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.

An Australian school was evacuated Wednesday after a child took a hand grenade into the classroom for a "show and tell" lesson, police said.

The grenade resembles a World War II "pineapple" model and was believed to be inert but police said it would not be moved from a teacher's desk until specialists were satisfied it was safe to do so.

The refurbished Hollywood sign was presented in all its freshly painted glory Tuesday after its biggest makeover in 35 years, in time for 90th birthday celebrations next year.

Some 360 gallons of fresh bright white paint was applied over the last two months to the Tinseltown icon, which sits atop Mount Lee in the Hollywood Hills north of Los Angeles.

Blame social media the next time it feels like forever for your turn to use the toilet.

According to a study released Monday, 32 percent of people in the United States aged 18 to 24 say they use social networking in the bathroom.

The Australian arm of McDonald's has urged the national Macquarie Dictionary to include "Macca's" -- the brand's local nickname -- in its next edition.

The hamburger giant said Macca's was second only to "footy" among recognizable words in local slang, according to a branding survey it commissioned that found 55 percent of Australians referred to the golden arches in the abbreviated form.

Chinese astronauts are preparing to grow fresh vegetables on Mars and the moon after researchers successfully completed a preliminary test in Beijing, state media reported.

Four kinds of vegetables were grown in an "ecological life support system", a 300 cubic meter cabin which will allow astronauts to develop their own stocks of air, water and food while on space missions, Xinhua news agency said Monday.

Terrified Thai villagers were on Tuesday hunting a tiger suspected of killing two people in less than a week after a woman was mauled to death in a rubber plantation near the site of an earlier attack.

Pranee Mahasuk, 43, was slashed on the face and back in front of her husband as the pair tapped rubber shortly before midnight on Monday, said Urupong Chanakul, deputy chief of Betong district in Thailand's southern Yala province.

Get your garlic, crosses and stakes ready: a bloodsucking vampire is on the loose.

Or so say villagers in the tiny western Serbian hamlet of Zarozje, nestled between lush green mountain slopes and spooky thick forests. They say rumors that a legendary vampire ghost has awakened are spreading fear — and a potential tourist opportunity — through the remote village.

More than 1,000 Taiwan people formed a human QR code Sunday in an event designed to promote the island to the world by cashing in on the rising use of smartphones which can read the barcodes.

QR codes are commonly used to direct users to websites, videos or social media sites.

Cathay Pacific is probing reports a flight attendant threatened to throw coffee at ousted Thai premier Thaksin Shinawatra's daughter, after calling the politician an "enemy", the airline said Monday.

The attendant said she wanted to throw the drink at Paetongtarn, one of Thaksin's three children, after discovering her on board the flight from Bangkok to Hong Kong, according to Hong Kong's South China Morning Post paper.