Vladimir Putin has sent a Black Russian Terrier puppy to his Venezuelan counterpart Hugo Chavez, who joked the Russian strongman would receive a capybara, the world's largest rodent, in return.

The three-month-old puppy was given to Chavez by Igor Sechin, one of Putin's most trusted lieutenants and chief executive of Rosneft, Russia's largest oil company.

A Chinese man needed to be restrained after he tried to open the emergency exit thinking it was the toilet door during a flight to Hong Kong, an airline said Friday.

Crew of the Hong Kong Airlines flight from Bali, Indonesia, were shocked to see the 52-year-old man rise from his seat halfway through the journey and start pulling on the emergency door handle, the airline said.

Canadian and U.S. authorities have busted a cross-border cheese smuggling ring that brought Can$200,000 worth of mozzarella into Canada undeclared and without paying duties.

Four men, including two Canadian policemen, were foiled in the caper to also distribute the dairy products -- as well as chicken wings and pickles -- to pizzerias and other restaurants in southern Ontario for an estimated profit of Can$165,000, Niagara Regional Police said.

This week, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon joined the ranks of those pranked by a Quebec radio station, his office confirmed Thursday.

Montreal comedy duo Marc-Antoine Audette and Sebastien Trudel called Ban on Wednesday afternoon and pretended to be Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

A gay Hong Kong woman on Friday implored her tycoon father to rescind a $65-million "marriage bounty" for any man who can win her heart, as applications poured in from around the globe.

"For your family's sanity's sake, Daddy please rescind the notice!!!!" Gigi Chao, 33, wrote on her Facebook page, adding that she would no longer accept Facebook friend requests.

A U.S. chef was convicted of second degree murder Thursday after he admitted to slow-cooking his wife's body for four days to get rid of the evidence, while claiming she had died accidentally.

During a grisly six-day trial David Viens, 49, told police he had bound his 39-year-old wife Dawn with duct tape to stop her from escaping, and then went to sleep. He awoke four hours later to find her dead, and panicked.

Alex Riachi is aspiring to enter the record books through his ability to drag trucks with his ponytail, reported the National News Agency.

The 30-something Zahle native has succeeded in dragging two trucks, of a combined weight of 10 tons, with his ponytail.

An unmanned drone analysing earthquake damage in countryside near the city of Ravenna, northeast Italy, made an unexpected discovery -- a marijuana plantation hidden in some bushes.

"There was a real marijuana farm in the countryside near Ravenna on abandoned land and hidden by thick vegetation," the police said in a statement.

A British policeman put his colleagues on alert as he investigated a "suspicious bright light" -- only to find it was the moon, an in-house magazine for the police reported Wednesday.

Police magazine reported that the hapless officer only realised his blunder after warning his fellow constables in Worcestershire, central England, that he might require back-up.

Italian customs found more than 600 scorpions in a routine check of the baggage of a Chinese man who flew into Florence, the daily La Repubblica reported Wednesday.

The 607 Manchurian scorpions (Mesobuthus martensii), half of which were still alive, were packed into plastic boxes with ice, the report said.