For many aspiring Chinese, living in a chateau would be a dream come true. But bourgeois apartments with foreign names are the latest victims of a wide-ranging crackdown on "Western values" by Communist authorities.

A state-run newspaper lashed out Tuesday at the widespread adoption of foreign names in China.

An unlikely royal intervention into Britain's European referendum debate was among the April Fools' stories foxing the world's newspaper readers Friday -- but for U.S. internet giant Google, the joke was on them.

April Fools is no laughing matter, China's official news service said Friday, bashing the Western tradition of opening spring with a gag as un-Chinese. 

The official news agency Xinhua's stiffly worded post on micro-blog Weibo declared: "Today is the West's so-called 'April Fools'".

The Cypriot ex-wife of an Egyptian accused of hijacking a plane in a bid to see her has said their marriage was hell and he had shown no interest in her or their children since they separated.

The U.S. Department of State issued an apology Wednesday after posting a tweet that seemed to proffer travel advice for those whose looks are less than a perfect 10.

"Some have been offended by our earlier tweet and we apologize that it came off negatively," the Bureau of Consular Affairs posted on its Twitter account, after pulling down the offending message.

One of China's biggest private-sector conglomerates is seeking a magical solution to the horns of a dilemma about its future, pledging to "become a giant 'Unicorn' with enormous power".

Fosun International used the word "unicorn" at least 19 times in its annual report, in which it declared net profits of more than eight billion yuan ($1.2 billion).

A British man who caused online debate Wednesday after having his picture taken with the hijacker of an Egyptian plane said that he did it to take a "closer look" at his supposed suicide belt.  

Montenegro has deported 58 foreign members of a Japanese doomsday cult, most of them Russians, for lacking the right permits to visit the Balkan country, police said on Tuesday.

A Sri Lankan police officer was in a critical condition Monday after a man he was trying to arrest over a drunken brawl bit his genitals.

A 40-year-old Jewish man tempted fate by walking into a Paris synagogue dressed as a jihadist, carrying a fake rifle and shouting "Allahu Akbar", a police source said Friday.