The first music video recorded in space -- a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity" by Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield -- is back after a public outcry over its removal from YouTube.

Hadfield, who made the video in zero gravity during a five-month mission last year to the International Space Station, said on his website that it is being made available online for free for two years.

From a failed American idol contestant to an ex-convict, everyone seemed to get in on the act in Tuesday's midterm U.S. congressional elections.

Here are some of the quirkiest or most noteworthy of the Senate and House races:

A luxury pet hotel featuring air-conditioned suites, spa services and gourmet meals was unveiled Tuesday in Singapore, further raising the level of pet pampering in the wealthy city-state.

The 4,317 square-foot (401 square-meter) Wagington hotel is located in a converted British colonial-era bungalow in the diplomatic quarter.

It was clearly a slip of the tongue, but many Austrians will not be amused because they hear it all too often: Expressing his gratitude for the hosting of a major conference in Vienna, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon offered his thanks to — Australia.

Ban recovered Monday about 20 minutes into his news conference on the sidelines of the meeting focused on landlocked developing countries. Tipped off by aides, he apologized, noting he knows full well that there are "no kangaroos in Austria."

When he became Turkey's head of state in August after over a decade as prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan promised to be an active president.

But few could have imagined this would extend to personally policing Turkey's anti-smoking legislation on a busy Istanbul street.

Beijing authorities have banned people from burning the clothes of dead relatives -- a traditional funerary rite to ensure they can dress in the afterlife -- as an anti-pollution measure for an international summit, state-run media said Tuesday.

The move comes days ahead of the opening of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, when Chinese President Xi Jinping will host leaders from the United States, Russia and Japan among others.

Children armed with whistles will soon be patrolling villages in central India to try to shame those defecating in the open, a report said Sunday.

Madhya Pradesh state government is expected soon to launch the unusual sanitation initiative, in which schoolchildren will blow their whistles loudly when they spot someone squatting in the open instead of using a toilet.

Shepherds guided a flock of 2,000 sheep through Madrid's streets on Sunday in defense of ancient grazing, droving and migration rights increasingly threatened by urban sprawl and modern agricultural practices.

Tourists and city-dwellers were surprised to see the capital's traffic cut to permit the bleating, bell-clanking parade to pass the city's most emblematic locations.

Two Chinese officials bought corpses from grave robbers to meet government cremation quotas, local media reported, as Beijing pushes to enforce its controversial and highly sensitive burial policies.

The officials from Guangdong province bought the bodies from a man who stole more than 20 in night-time raids on graveyards, the official news agency Xinhua said, citing Chinese media.

A man who taxied his light plane down a street in Australia and parked it at a pub while he went inside for a beer was being questioned Monday by police, who were not amused.

Locals in Newman, Western Australia, were stunned when they saw the wingless Beechcraft two-seater aircraft chugging down the main drag of the mining town in the Pilbara region, before pulling up at the local watering hole.