Authorities say a U.S. man published a fake obituary for his living mother in a ploy to get paid bereavement time off from work.

Relatives called The Jeffersonian Democrat newspaper in Pennsylvania after the obit appeared to say the woman was actually alive and well. The woman herself then visited the paper.

In a reversal of fortunes, a once-unwanted cat has come to the rescue of an animal shelter in need of a new home.

However, this orange-and-white tabby named Daniel is no typical cat. He has a near-record 26 toes, a phenomenon that is helping the nonprofit Milwaukee Animal Rescue Center raise money to relocate to a new building.

Think poinsettia plants are passé? Had enough holly at the holidays? Try tomatoes.

Besides growing dozens of varieties of poinsettias for a national research project, the University of New Hampshire has been experimenting with dwarf tomato plants as holiday decor. Researchers grew about six dozen plants in three varieties of tomatoes and showed them off along with the poinsettias at a holiday open house recently.

At a Montreal bistro aptly named Robin des Bois, or Robin Hood, volunteers are cooking up a storm to help those down on their luck by giving away the profits.

The restaurant is the brainchild of Judy Servay, a former advertising executive once known for throwing Christmas parties with a twist -- clients and employees would gather to make meals for the homeless.

An administrative loophole allows passengers on the Eurostar train to enter Britain without any passport checks and London is powerless to stop the practice alone, the BBC reported on Thursday.

British border officials trying to weed out suspected offenders at the Brussels train station have been threatened with arrest by Belgian police, it said citing internal government documents and emails.

The crew of a British warship have created a viral smash hit by miming to the words of Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas Is You".

The four-minute video shows servicemen and women on HMS Ocean acting and dancing along to the 1994 song on the helicopter carrier's flight deck and below decks.

Gamers worried their actions on the virtual battlefield could land them at the Hague war crimes tribunal can relax.

The International Committee of the Red Cross says media reports that it is investigating whether the Geneva Conventions apply to video games are false.

Chinese web users have flooded a wildlife park with pleas for an amorous male sheep and female deer to be allowed to stay together after their mating habits raised concerns.

Staff at the wildlife park turned to the country's half a billion web users for advice after the deer and the ram -- whose Chinese name Changmao means Long Hair -- began their unconventional liaison.

An innovative scheme to keep the streets of northern Taiwan clean has seen thousands of citizens dutifully collecting bags of dog poop in the hope of winning $2,000 in gold.

More than 4,000 residents of New Taipei City, which surrounds the capital, have signed up for the competition since it was launched in early August, and have so far collected 14,000 bags of the stuff.

Pope Benedict XVI used a tablet computer from his Vatican residence on Wednesday to switch on a giant light installation in Italy known as the "World's Biggest Christmas Tree".

"I hope this will be a light in the darkness," the pope said.