A new fad that has people hiding out in IKEA stores overnight and walking out the next morning has left the Swedish retailer less than amused.

In Europe, pranksters seeking a thrill have followed in the footsteps of Bram Geirnaert and Florian Van Hecke, two Belgian students who filmed and posted on YouTube a video clip about the night they spent last summer at an Ikea store in Ghent.

Pope Francis was the toast of social media on Wednesday after successfully completing his latest groundbreaking mission: popping out of the Vatican to buy himself some new footwear.

Four prominent Greek and multinational food companies face the prospect of yanking goods from supermarket shelves during the Christmas holidays after a contamination threat by anarchists, police said Tuesday.

Pakistan's embattled national carrier has been widely mocked for sacrificing a goat next to a plane to ward off bad luck, weeks after one of the country's worst air disasters.

A Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) turboprop plane built by European manufacturer ATR plummeted into a mountain in a northern region on December 7, bursting into flames and killing all 47 people on board.

Gazing upward to take in the majesty of the Eiffel Tower, visitors to Paris may be astonished to learn that a vicious war, pitting Man against Rat, is unfolding at their feet.

Indian scientists have discovered a new species of spider that looks "uncannily" like the sorting hat in Harry Potter and have named it after its owner Godric Gryffindor, they said Thursday.

The ardent fans of the boy wizard came across the seven millimetre (around a quarter of an inch) spider in October last year during a survey of the lush Western Ghats mountain range in south-west India.

Thieves held up a van transporting 70 kilograms (154 pounds) of gold in a dramatic heist near the French city of Lyon on Monday, police sources said.

Separated from his mother shortly after birth, Manno the chimpanzee was smuggled to Iraq and spent his days smoking cigarettes handed to him by amused zoo visitors and posing for pictures.

A prominent adviser to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has cooked up a simmering controversy with the suggestion that foreign chefs on Turkish television shows are undercover spies.

Paris officials have announced a crackdown on rats which blight parks and gardens around the City of Light and are thought to easily outnumber humans.