A Malaysian man is suing his runaway bride for 1.1 million ringgit ($365,000) after she called off the wedding with just six hours to go, his lawyer said Tuesday.

Civil servant Mohammad Masran Abdul Rahman, 32, is suing hospital technician Norzuliyana Mat Hassan, 28, in the second case of its kind in northern Kelantan state in just two months, his lawyer Latifah Ariffin told Agence France Presse.

France is the home of the baguette, that savory, crisp staple of a fabled gastronomy. But just try getting a fresh one in the evening, or on a holiday, or even in August, when many of the country's 33,000 bakeries are closed.

Jean-Louis Hecht thinks he has the answer.

Malaysia's only openly gay pastor is urging homosexuals in the mainly Muslim country to "keep coming out" to help battle homophobia, as he gets set to tie the knot with his American partner.

Reverend Ouyang Wen Feng is a highly controversial figure who faced outrage and threats when he opened in 2007 the first gay-friendly church in conservative Malaysia, where sexual identity is a hot-button topic.

Long famed as a tourist destination for its sunny beaches, exotic cuisine and historic sites, Morocco is now offering foreign visitors another attraction: plastic surgery clinics.

Only a short flight from Europe, the North African country is attracting growing numbers of foreign visitors looking to take advantage of lower prices for everything from face-lifts and nose jobs to tummy tucks and penis enlargements.

A senior government minister in Australia has announced that her lesbian partner is pregnant.

Finance Minister Penny Wong said in a statement Tuesday that her partner, Sophie Allouache, had conceived through in-vitro fertilization and is expecting her first child in December.

Mexican federal police say they have captured five members of a kidnapping and extortion ring that operated in the Mexico City region and was known for leaving the heads of pigs outside homes and businesses as a warning.

A police statement Sunday says the "Pig's Heads" gang was toppled thanks to information gleaned from a gang member who was arrested in February.

Cigarette butts could be a thing of the past on one Italian beach near Venice where the local mayor introduced a test ban on smoking Saturday.

Swimmers and sunbathers are being encouraged to put out their cigarettes on part of Bibione beach, in the municipality of San Michele al Tagliamento.

Tens of thousands people from all walks of life, including government ministers and uniform-clad gay police officers and army personnel, marched in Stockholm's gay pride parade Saturday.

Police said 35,000 to 50,000 people paraded through the Swedish capital's centre and that the event took place with no incidents.

Mark Twain jokingly recommended crime as a way of learning morals, so the great American writer might not have been shocked at the woman who on Friday admitted to stealing $1 million from his museum-home.

Donna Gregor, 58, pleaded guilty in Bridgeport, Connecticut to wire fraud and filing a false tax return as part of schemes to embezzle the Mark Twain House and Museum, federal prosecutors said.

A Taiwanese court has ordered a runaway bride to pay Tw$250,000 ($8,620) in emotional damage to her groom-to-have-been for not showing up at their wedding, local media reported Friday.

The woman, who was five-months pregnant at the time, failed to show up at the wedding ceremony in November after she and her intended had fought over the number of guests to be invited, said the TVBS cable news channel.