Officials in Florida say someone has been attacking the state's pelicans, slashing the pouches of the oversized birds, which often die as a result.

Ten injured pelicans were found in the Florida Keys, sanctuary to a bounty of U.S. wildlife, five of which died of their injuries, said officials.

Bulgarian customs seized two million endangered baby eels concealed in the luggage of two Chinese men arriving from Spain, officials said Friday.

The tiny baby eels, or elvers, are seen by some as a specialty, fetching 500 euros ($560) per kilo in Europe and up to 1,300 euros in Asia, the customs agency said.

Palestine and Jordan have been slapped with perhaps the most embarrassing sanctions yet at the Asian Cup -- for smoking in the team dressing room.

In scenes more reminiscent of the amateur leagues, both teams were caught out by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) after their match in Melbourne last Friday.

A bubbly shopping guide, a charitable "internetainerpreneur" and a comedian who wears green lipstick and eats ladles of cinnamon quizzed U.S. President Barack Obama Thursday in a series of unorthodox YouTube presidential interviews.

Bethany Mota, Hank Green and GloZell Green -- video bloggers who between them have received more than 1.5 billion views on YouTube -- were invited to talk to Obama about his recent State of the Union address.

A student in Beijing is suing his university after he was allegedly expelled for having the rare hereditary blood disease haemophilia, reports said Friday, the latest case in China's long history of medical discrimination.

The student, identified by the pseudonym Zheng Qing, is suing the China Institute of Industrial Relations after he was officially expelled earlier this month, the government-run Global Times reported. He was previously pressured into leaving the school in September. 

Kentucky Fried Chicken in Japan has stopped selling fries, as industrial disputes that have crimped potato exports from the U.S. took another bite out of the country's fast food market.

The chain became the latest casualty of the chip shortage that has already forced McDonald's Japan to ration its servings.

A Swedish woman keeping an eye on her cats via a webcam in her apartment caught burglars in the act on Wednesday and tipped off the police, who arrested them.

Police in Norrkoeping south of the capital Stockholm said they were warned by a resident who had spotted two intruders in her home unaware of the fact that they were being filmed.

A Jordanian woman gave birth to a premature but healthy baby girl mid-flight over the Atlantic while travelling to New York from Amman, officials said Wednesday.

The 33-year-old woman was assisted by a nurse and doctor who happened to be on board Royal Jordanian flight 261 when she went into labor, four hours before landing in the Big Apple.

A Frenchman came within three weeks of allowing a 73 million euro lottery win to evaporate after carrying the winning ticket around in his wallet for a month, the lottery company said Wednesday.

The man from northeastern France, an online subscriber to Euromillions, hit the jackpot on December 2, but he had stopped routinely checking his numbers.

Two Russian performance artists were jailed for 10 days on Tuesday after throwing holy water at the Lenin Mausoleum on Red Square and shouting, "Rise up and leave!"

The men were sentenced to 10 days in police cells for petty hooliganism after the protest they carried out on Monday, an Orthodox holiday, a member of their art group, Irina Dumitskaya told Agence France Presse.