A team of South Koreans Monday began a 230 kilometer (144 mile) relay swim from an eastern port to the Dokdo islands, in Seoul's latest assertion of its sovereignty over the outcrops claimed by Japan.

The team led by singer Kim Jang-Hoon plans to complete the swim on Liberation Day Wednesday, which marks the ending in 1945 of Japan's 35-year colonial rule over Korea.

Canadians last week ridiculed a nervous American tourist over his criticisms of Canada's strict gun laws following what he said was "menacing" encounter with two young men in a Calgary park.

Walt Wawra of Kalamazoo, Michigan detailed his account of a chance meeting in Nose Hill Park in a letter to the editor of the Calgary Herald, during a recent visit to the city in western Canada.

Canada's largest Protestant denomination is urging congregants to stop gossiping, likening the chatter to gambling and "other evils of society."

"Gossip can cause people to lose their jobs and their good reputations," according to a motion under consideration at the United Church of Canada's 41st general council, held August 11-18 in Ottawa.

Iranian police are looking for a phony sorcerer who conned a man into believing he was invisible and could rob banks, the Jam-e Jam newspaper said Thursday.

Customers at a Tehran bank quickly overpowered the deluded robber after he started snatching banknotes from their hands.

A woman in China tied a blow-up sex doll to a roadside tree intending to slow down traffic on Wednesday, The Sun reported.

Infuriated at the police for failing to pursue speeding motorists passing by her home in the city of Ningbo, the resident of the house Lin Chen, 67, took matters into her own hands.

A sticker book dedicated to notorious Colombian criminals has become a sales hit in a city that was once the headquarters of notorious drug lord Pablo Escobar.

The 16-page album, which has been on the market for about 10 days, focuses on Escobar, the Medellin cartel chief who was killed in 1993, as well as other drug-traffickers and killers such as Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha or John Jairo Vasquez.

Frustrated New Yorkers will get their buzz back Thursday after the mayor's office agreed not to pull the plug on a free giveaway of vibrators.

Condoms giant Trojan brought traffic to a halt late Wednesday with the sex toys publicity stunt that reportedly lured hundreds of people in lower Manhattan.

A tree-loving Slovak boy has donated his life savings to protect forests in the High Tatras region stricken by a plague of bark beetles in what is Europe's smallest Alpine-type mountain range.

Twelve-year old Matej Jurcisin donated 5,000 euros ($6,170) to the Tatras National Park (TANAP) in northern Slovakia, which has been fighting the disaster since November 2004.

A historic American town with a population of two people will be auctioned off on August 15, the auctioneers Williams & Williams said Thursday.

The northwestern town of Garryowen, Montana, little over 7.7 acres, includes houses, a grocery store, a fast food restaurant, a shop and a post office.

Members of a Russian sect found living in an underground bunker with some 20 children, many of whom have never seen the sun, have been charged with child abuse last week.

The digging began about a decade ago and 70 followers of the sect moved into an eight-level subterranean residence of small cells with no light, heat or ventilation.