As he does every time he climbs on a tightrope, Nik Wallenda will say a little prayer Friday as he mounts the thin steel wire for what could be his greatest aerial triumph.

Perched on an impossibly narrow steel cable some 60 meters (200 feet) in the air, this scion of one of America's first families of acrobats is aiming to do something untried in more than a century: crossing the treacherous Niagara Falls on a highwire.

A Florida tour boat operator had his hand bitten off as he was feeding an alligator marshmallows to entertain passengers, officials said Wednesday.

The boat was carrying about six tourists late Tuesday when the alligator leapt up and devoured the sweets along with the captain's hand, according to Jorge Pino, a spokesman for the state Fish and Wildlife authority.

Another centuries-old skeleton of a man who was subjected to a ritual to stop him from turning into a vampire was unearthed in central Bulgaria Tuesday, archaeologist Nikolay Ovcharov said.

"The skeleton was tied to the ground with four iron clamps, while burning ambers were placed on top of his grave," Ovcharov told Agence France Presse.

Mr Bean fans in Indonesia have been warned to beware of a locally made spoof horror film called "Mr. Bean Possessed by D.P." that stars an unknown actor that bears a resemblance to the popular character.

The official Facebook page for Mr Bean, a comedy about a socially awkward man played by the British comedian Rowan Atkinson, said: "We have just heard that there is a new film out in Indonesia with 'Mr Bean' in the title.

With a single tweet, France's first lady managed Tuesday to take a swipe at her man's ex, put herself publicly at odds with the president, and throw a spanner in the works of his Socialist party.

Valerie Trierweiler posted an apparently innocent message on Twitter wishing a relatively unknown politician good luck in his bid to win a seat in the National Assembly in Sunday's second round parliamentary vote.

A huge colony of fruit bats that live in Sydney's Royal Botanic Gardens are such a pest that desperate officials have taken to blaring industrial noise and banging sounds to scare them off.

And the ploy appears to have worked.

This year's Nobel Prize laureates will have a little less to pad their wallets with than previous winners, organizers said Monday, announcing a 20-percent cut in the award because of the economic crisis.

"At its meeting on June 11, 2012, the board of directors of the Nobel Foundation set the amount of the 2012 Nobel Prizes at 8.0 million Swedish kronor (900,800 euros, $1.13 million) per prize," the foundation said in a statement.

China will loan two endangered baby pandas to Malaysia for 10 years to commemorate strong diplomatic ties between the two Asian countries, the environment ministry said Tuesday.

"The Malaysian government will be receiving a pair of pandas following an agreement with the China Wildlife Conservation Association," the Natural Resources and Environment ministry said in a statement.

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was named Tuesday as the winner of this year's Seoul Peace Prize, the prize foundation said.

Ban was chosen for promoting the rights of women and children, efforts to eliminate poverty in developing nations, and contributing to the democratization of Middle Eastern countries, the foundation said.

British Prime Minister David Cameron left his eight-year-old daughter at the pub for around a quarter of an hour following a family lunch, his Downing Street office confirmed Monday.

Nancy Cameron wandered off to the toilets while the premier and his wife Samantha were arranging lifts and the couple only realized she was missing once they got home, The Sun newspaper reported.