Swiss national train operator SBB said Friday it is to meet Apple representatives after the tech giant used without agreement its famous clock design on a new application for iPad and iPhone.

"There's been no agreement so far, we're going to talk about it," SBB press spokeswoman Patricia Claivaz told Agence France Presse, adding that the rail firm's lawyers had requested the meeting.

Apple's new iPhone 5 may have been criticised for its glitch-ridden new maps program, but it may have inadvertently provided a diplomatic solution to China and Japan's ongoing row over disputed islands.

The new smartphone, which has dumped Google Maps in favour of its own version, has been ridiculed for misplacing major landmarks, shifting towns and even creating a new airport.

Riot police went into action in a sleepy Dutch town late Friday to contain thousands of party-goers who turned up after a teenager's birthday invite on Facebook went viral.

Dutch news agency ANP quoted a correspondent as saying the situation in Haren near the northern city of Groningen was getting out of control as police were pelted with stones, bottles, bicycles and pots of flowers by angry youths.

Bosnia's electoral commission on Friday annulled the candidacy of an independent running for mayor in the central town of Zenica next month after he used pornography on his website to attract voters.

Mirad Hadziahmetovic "violated Bosnia's electoral law by publishing pornographic photos and video clips during the electoral campaign" ahead of the October 7, the commission said in a statement explaining the move.

An ambitious plan to link marine parks across a vast swathe of ocean -- whose surface area would equal that of the Moon -- is slowly coming together piece by piece, say conservationists.

Former international rugby league player turned environmentalist Kevin Iro is a driving force behind the part of the park that will encompass the Cook Islands -- a nation whose combined landmass is barely bigger than Washington DC.

Italian police are making use of Facebook to identify criminal networks and even to catch gangsters who cannot resist posting updates while on the run, L'Espresso weekly reported on Friday.

"For us it is an important tool," Alessandro Giuliano, head of police detectives in Milan, was quoted as saying.

New Yorkers can now admire the city's statue of Christopher Columbus up close and personal -- so personal that it's inside an apartment room.

Starting Thursday and running through November 18, visitors can enter the "Discovering Columbus" apartment built around the statue, located in the downtown Columbus Circle, by Japanese artist Tatzu Nishi.

Forget face lifts or boob jobs -- in California the latest cosmetic surgery must-have is the buttock enhancement, whether higher, rounder or just smoother.

"I just knew that I was unhappy. And you know I did something for myself, something that did make me happy. And I feel great," said Kristina, 21, after going under the knife of surgeon Ashkan Ghavami.

More than six million revellers from around the globe are set to descend on Munich from Saturday for the world's biggest beer fest, complete with lederhosen, pretzels and plenty of the amber nectar.

With the traditional cry of "O'zapft is" ("The keg is tapped") on the stroke of midday (1000 GMT), the mayor of Munich will kick off the 16-day extravaganza of beer-swilling and sausage-gobbling to the accompaniment of an oompah band.

A British soldier serving on the frontline in Afghanistan has given birth at the NATO base where she is posted -- days after it came under attack from the Taliban, the defence ministry said Wednesday.

The woman, who gave birth to a baby boy on Tuesday at Camp Bastion, in Helmand Province, did not know she was pregnant, British media reports said.