Belgium hit out at France on Thursday after Paris forced it to scrap a new two-euro coin celebrating the 200th anniversary of the defeat of Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo.

Around 180,000 of the coins had already been produced when France objected on the grounds that it would create tensions, with Europe's unity already under threat, officials said.

Forensic experts in Italy said Thursday they had reconstructed the DNA of a national war hero and poet by analyzing semen he left on a handkerchief given to a lover 100 years ago.

In a global first, the proto-fascist warmonger Gabriele D'Annunzio's DNA was reconstructed without exhuming his remains, forensic police said, raising hopes the technique could be used to solve cold cases.

The U.S. Secret Service is investigating claims that some of its agents crashed a car into White House security barriers after a boozy night out, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.

If the allegation is confirmed, it would only be the latest in a series of errors to taint the agency, which provides U.S. President Barack Obama's security team, following high-profile security breaches and a prostitution scandal.

A man convicted of child molestation has admitted mailing a threatening letter from a western Pennsylvania prison to President Barack Obama — albeit to the wrong address.

Joseph Savage pleaded guilty Wednesday in federal court to counts of threatening the president and threatening the president's family.

A 200-word essay and $125 is all it will take to become the proud owner of a bucolic New England inn, says its owner, who won the establishment in the same way. 

For more than two decades, Janice Sage has run the Center Lovell Inn, a majestic bed and breakfast nestled in western Maine, famous for its cross-country skiing and mountain vistas.

The imprint of a license plate in a snowbank proved to be the undoing of a couple suspected of a series of burglaries in Massachusetts.

A Lakeville police officer investigating a home break-in traced the imprint to a pickup truck that matched the description of a vehicle seen at other burglaries.

An Arizona sheriff's department says some of the marijuana bales that suspects tossed out of an SUV during a high-speed chase last week got picked up by passing vehicles.

Dash-cam video released by the Pinal County Sheriff's Office shows many of the 21 bales of pot inside the SUV flying out a window and onto roadways during the March 4 chase. Several of the bales broke apart as they bounced on the pavement.

Derek Zoolander and male model rival Hansel made catwalk appearances for Valentino's show at the Paris Fashion Week on Tuesday, setting off a surprised roar of applause and laughter.

U.S. actors Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson, the stars of the 2001 movie "Zoolander" that poked fun at the fashion world, raised the roof when they stepped back into their comic roles at the end of Valentino's real-life autumn-winter women's collection.

An advert for a house in Indonesia has gone viral online after the woman selling it offered to throw in an unusual extra feature for free -- her hand in marriage.

The Internet ad reads for the most part like a regular house listing, saying that the single-storey property has two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a parking space and a fish pond. 

The Vatican has given its blessing to a shortbread milkshake.

Part of the proceeds from sales of "#PopeinPhilly" milkshakes will benefit two events this fall in Philadelphia: a world gathering of Catholic families and a visit by the pope.