A New York judge has banned an annual skateboard race which had been due to run the length of Manhattan and draw up to 2,000 riders on Saturday.

The Broadway Bomb, as the event is known, started with a few dozen people in 2002 and last year saw 1,000 participants, riding colorful longboards down Broadway into New York's financial district.

French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault on Thursday compared Franco-German relations to the "balanced" relationship he has with his wife, saying that discussion would prevent any misunderstandings.

The premier denied that France and Germany's relationship, which has always been central to a strong European Union, was in trouble amid the eurozone crisis, as leaders of the bloc prepared to meet for a summit in Brussels.

A man stole a marked police car at a police station in the South African capital Pretoria on Thursday after an officer left the keys in the ignition while he rushed to use the toilet, police said.

The Nissan pick-up truck was stolen from Pretoria West police station, according to SAPA news agency, quoting police.

British television network ITV on Thursday issued a humiliating apology after daytime hit show This Morning was fooled into running a feature on a hoax celebrity sperm bank.

The program carried an interview with self-styled businessman Dan Richards, who said his company would match up women with donors including professional sportsmen and musicians.

A female keeper at Sydney's Taronga Zoo was fighting for her life Friday after being crushed against a fence post by "miracle" elephant Mr Shuffles, an animal she had cared for all its life.

An ambulance spokeswoman said emergency services were called to the elephant enclosure and discovered that a woman in her 40s had been badly hurt.

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard has a history of losing shoes and another footwear fumble that saw her take an embarrassing tumble in India grabbed the headlines Thursday.

The nation's first female leader, who last week won international attention for a stinging speech about sexism and misogyny, had just laid a wreath at a Gandhi memorial in New Delhi Wednesday when she fell in front of the cameras.

An 82-year-old Austrian grandmother took on a bank robber who was armed with a gun and a home-made bomb, newspapers reported Wednesday.

Hertha Wallecker ripped the thief's mask off his head and tore a bag containing cash he had stolen out of his hand, shouting: "The money belongs to the bank."

The Internet exploded with memes Wednesday mocking Mitt Romney for his "binders full of women" remark at his town-hall debate with President Barack Obama the night before.

"Captain of finance, binder of women," snickered one meme featuring a smiling portrait of the equity-fund tycoon turned politician and Republican White House challenger.

Construction workers dismantling a vacant house in rural Japan discovered $330,000 cash stuffed in a tin box underneath the living room floor, press reports said Wednesday.

The house, in a farming town on the northern island of Hokkaido, had been empty since its elderly male owner died two years ago, the reports said.

Have you spent your life hunting for the perfect wife? Maybe you have met the one but are feeling gun shy?

An Iowa jeweler is offering free rifles for husbands-to-be who spend at least $1,999 on an engagement ring at his store near Iowa City.