A 25-year-old man died and another was recovering in hospital Wednesday after they became stranded in the harsh Australian Outback, prompting warnings about the risks of the desert.

The pair had been on a routine morning check of a spring near Ethabuka cattle station, near the Simpson Desert in southeast Queensland state, on Monday when their four-wheel-drive vehicle became bogged on a sand dune.

A Russian man reportedly suffering from unrequited love for his colleague went on a shooting spree in his Moscow office, killing five and wounding another two, police said on Wednesday.

He opened fire at the offices of the drugs company in northeast Moscow Wednesday, killing five colleagues and wounding another two, the Investigative Committee said. The company's security guards had detained him, the statement added.

Nothing was going to stop first-time voter Galicia Malone from casting her ballot in Tuesday's US elections -- not even the imminent birth of her first child.

The 21-year-old from Dolton, Illinois, a suburb of President Barack Obama's adopted hometown Chicago, had been in labor since the middle of the night, with contractions five minutes apart.

A female Egyptian schoolteacher who cut two of her pupils' hair as punishment for not wearing the Islamic headscarf was given a six-month suspended prison sentence on Tuesday, a lawyer said.

She was tried after the government's national council for childhood and maternity requested an inquiry into the incident. The public prosecutor accused her of "treating children harshly."

A British lawmaker skipped parliament on Tuesday to take part in a reality television show in the Australian jungle, where contestants regularly eat tarantulas and kangaroo testicles.

Nadine Dorries, a member of Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservative Party, is likely to face questions from constituents and party chiefs alike about her surprise departure.

A "sorcerer" tattooist has been arrested in northeastern Thailand after several brawls involving his disciples who believed his body art made them invincible, police said Tuesday.

Boonyong Luangjumpol was held for possession of guns after officers raided his home following a spate of fights in the province of Kalasin, local police chief Major General Kanisorn Noinard told Agence France Presse.

Police in the Gaza Strip on Monday captured a crocodile that roamed the sewerage system of a town in the north of the enclave, the Palestinian territory's Hamas rulers said.

"The Palestinian police were able to use a boat to catch a crocodile that was hiding in the sewerage system in the town of Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip," the Hamas interior ministry said in a statement.

The first ballots of the 2012 White House race were cast in the tiny northeastern town of Dixville Notch Tuesday, with Barack Obama and Mitt Romney each receiving five votes.

The first-in-the-nation vote, held shortly after midnight, was tied for the first time in its history, another indication of the knife's edge separating the two candidates in a race that should be decided by the end of the day.

A Chinese man who swallowed a fake stone in a daring bluff that allowed an accomplice to get away with a real diamond pleaded guilty Monday to aiding theft and was given a fine and two-year suspended jail term.

Colombo chief magistrate Rashmi Singappuli ordered the 32-year-old man to pay 100,000 rupees ($770) over the incident in September when he swallowed the fake stone at an annual gem exhibition.

Wild dogs mauled a young child to death at a zoo in the U.S. city of Pittsburgh on Sunday, officials said.

"It is with heavy hearts we report that a tragic accident occurred Sunday at 11:45 a.m. when a young child fell into the African painted dog exhibit and was killed," the Pittsburgh Zoo and PPG Aquarium said in a statement.