Fisherman Rafael Mendoza spends his nights casting lines from his small motorized boat in Manila Bay with little hope of a big haul.

At the age of 62, the once-rich returns of the trade that paid for his seven children's school and college education have nearly disappeared.

Vladimir Putin was sent to Russia by God to help it deal with its troubles in the early post-Soviet era, the Kremlin's top political adviser was quoted as saying on Friday.

"To be honest, I think of Putin as a person who was sent to Russia by fate and the Almighty at a difficult hour," Interfax quoted first deputy administration chief Vladislav Surkov as telling Chechen television.

Three elephants were electrocuted at a wildlife sanctuary in northern India, apparently after they uprooted a utility pole and were caught in its wires, a forest official said Friday.

The charred bodies of the elephants entangled in the wires were found Friday at the Dudhwa National Park in Uttar Pradesh state, Vijay Pandey said.

A half-ton fighting bull skewered a "reckless" Australian thrill-seeker in the leg inflicting a grave injury Friday in Spain's San Fermin fiesta, organizers said.

The bull turned on the tourist after he taunted the beast, goring his right thigh and tossing him across the sand of the bull ring in the final stage of a daily bull-run in Pamplona, northern Spain.

Near-naked women adorn billboards across the Philippine capital but similar images of men have been deemed too risqué, with giant posters of bare-chested rugby players pulled following a public outcry.

The huge billboards of the men wearing only the close-fitting underwear of a clothing company prompted much comment on the streets of Manila and online after they appeared about a week ago.

A sticky-fingered person might be wandering the streets of Philadelphia in a flowing judicial robe.

A municipal judge on Wednesday said he had his official garb taken from the robing room at the city courthouse while he was in the men's room. Judge Joseph Waters Jr. says he had left the door of the room unlocked.

Italy's Latin lover prime minister Silvio Berlusconi is in robust health and "can have sex six times a week," but should take one day off to rest, his doctor said in an interview published Wednesday.

"He's a superior man, both physically and intellectually," Umberto Scapagnini, a member of Berlusconi's People of Freedom party and the premier's personal doctor said in an interview with Novella 2000 magazine.

The smartly-dressed Japanese husband and wife stand side-by-side, surrounded by close friends, in front of a clergyman-like figure. He asks them to smash their wedding rings with a hammer.

Hiroki Terai is a self-styled "divorce planner" who conducts solemn ceremonies during which he invites couples to show their disaffection for one another before they -- in most cases -- walk away smiling.

It's all innocent stuff: square-jawed boy meets doe-eyed girl, they fall in love, encounter a few rocky moments but ultimately seal their union with a kiss or a vague hint of sex.

Wholesome yarns like this form the heartbeat of romantic fiction, a genre that has been in existence since the mid-18th century and today sells by the bucket load.

Police here seized nearly two tons of cocaine concealed in a shipment of pineapples bound for Spain, and arrested three suspects, officials said Wednesday.

Police chief General Rodrigo Suarez said the seizure of 1.9 tons of cocaine came after a tip about a gang that buys, stores and exports cocaine by hiding the stimulant drug in boxes of pineapples being shipped to Valencia in Spain.