Most days, Lutheran pastor Kazuhiro Sekino preaches to his congregation in a soft voice with religious hymns playing in the background of a Tokyo church.

But as night falls, he hits a smoky stage criss-crossed with whizzing strobe lights, shedding his pious day job in a battle of the bands against a group of Buddhist monks.

Los Angeles police say diners scattered when a man dropped a 13-foot python on the floor of a sushi restaurant.

Officer Drake Madison says the man had argued with an employee and stormed out of Iroha Sushi of Tokyo in Studio City on Sunday evening. Madison says a short time later, the man returned with the giant snake, threw it into the dining room and walked out again.

English pubs will be allowed to open longer during the weekend in June celebrating Queen Elizabeth II's 90th birthday, Prime Minister David Cameron told parliament on Wednesday to cheers from MPs.

New York's World Trade Center was lit black, yellow and red in solidarity with Belgium over the Brussels attacks, a spokesman said Wednesday despite confusion that the lights looked wrong.

Governor Andrew Cuomo announced Tuesday that the 408-foot (124-meter) spire on the tallest building in the United States would be lit in the colors of the Belgian flag after dark.

A runaway zebra led police on a dramatic chase across a golf course in Japan, until its bid for freedom ended in death when it collapsed in a water trap.

The creature's odyssey, which was broadcast live on national television, saw officers in hot pursuit as they tried -- in vain -- to recapture it alive.

Security services looked on helplessly on Monday as France's "Spiderman" Alain Robert, who holds a world record for urban climbing, scaled the Total skyscraper in Paris' La Defense business district.

Despite an icy wind the 53-year-old easily climbed -- bare-handed and without ropes -- up the 187-meter (614-feet) building in less than 45 minutes, delighting passers-by.

As one of the nation's largest power providers, Duke Energy has invested large sums in whirring turbines and high tech solar projects.

On Monday it announced a new excrement-to-energy project that could provide power to about 10,000 homes a year.

A Spanish court Friday slapped a spokeswoman for Madrid's city council with a fine of 4,320 euros ($4,868) for taking her top off in a chapel during a protest in 2011 when she was still a university student.

A printer fault at Bangladesh's central bank meant that overseas queries about suspicious transactions went unanswered, according to a report seen by AFP Wednesday on the $81 million cyber heist that sent shockwaves through the banking world.

Over a quarter of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's salary is deducted for his use of an armored car for official business, his paycheck shows.