Stunt woman Jolene Van Vugt was flushed with pride Wednesday after setting a new land speed record for the fastest motorized toilet.

Van Vugt, a former Canadian motocross champion, steered the contraption through some early wobbles to 75 kilometers per hour (46 mph) in Sydney, seven kilometers more than the previous Guinness world record.

Forty-five percent of Americans fall asleep somewhere other than their bed at least once a week, a survey by a mattress industry group found Tuesday.

Men are more likely than women to nod off away from their beds, according to the nationwide survey of 1,000 adults for the Better Sleep Council, which Tuesday declared May to be "Better Sleep Month."

Two drunken Welshmen Wednesday escaped with a fine after being convicted of stealing a penguin called Dirk from an Australian theme park after consuming large amounts of vodka.

Former Royal Marine Rhys Owen Jones, 21, and his bricklayer friend Keri Mules, 20, broke into Sea World on Queensland's Gold Coast last month and swam with the dolphins and let off a fire extinguisher in a shark enclosure.

A motorcycle that washed ashore on Canada's west coast may have drifted across the Pacific after being carried out to sea by last year's devastating Japanese tsunami, Canada's CBC television reported.

The Harley-Davidson, with Japanese plates from one of the hardest hit areas, was found on April 18 by beachcomber Peter Mark in a cargo container on the Haida Gwaii islands off the coast of British Columbia, it said Monday.

A young U.S. woman who allegedly bit her bulldog during a drunken argument with her mother was charged with animal cruelty and domestic battery, police said Monday.

Neighbors called police after hearing loud screaming and pounding coming from the family home in Lake in the Hills, Illinois.

Denmark's Noma restaurant has been named the best in the world for a third year running in an international survey that also gave top rankings to establishments in Spain, Brazil and Italy.

The Copenhagen restaurant, serving Nordic specialties in a quayside warehouse, topped the World's 50 Best Restaurants list compiled for a 10th year by more than 800 international experts for Britain's Restaurant magazine.

The dolphin-hunting Japanese town of Taiji, made infamous by the Oscar-winning documentary "The Cove", plans to open a marine mammal park where visitors can swim with the creatures, a media report said.

The town intends to section off part of the cove and turns it into a place where people can swim and kayak alongside small whales and dolphins, Jiji Press news agency reported, calling it "a marine safari park."

A Thai web editor facing decades behind bars over remarks about the monarchy posted by other people on her website said she still hopes to be acquitted ahead of a closely-watched verdict this week.

A Bangkok court is set to decide Monday on charges against Chiranuch Premchaiporn that could carry a penalty of up to 20 years in prison, in a case that has shone a spotlight on Thailand's strict lese majeste and computer laws.

A Taiwanese beauty pageant is demanding contestants sign a declaration confirming they are not "home wreckers", amid growing concern over celebrity extramarital affairs.

"Beginning this year, each contestant must sign a declaration honestly stating she hasn't been in any extramarital affairs," Fifi Chang, organizer of the Miss Globalcity Taiwan Pageant, told Agence France Presse Monday.

The horse-mad leader of Turkmenistan on Sunday hosted his second presidential beauty contest for horses in the isolated Central Asian state.

President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov awarded "the most beautiful horse of the year" prize to a thoroughbred stallion called Khan of the Eagles, which beat the nine other finalists decked in traditional bridles.