What about growing marijuana to pay off crushing municipal debt? One Spanish village put the idea to the vote Tuesday, and a majority of its citizens approved — but not the 75 percent needed.

The referendum in Rasquera, population 960, in the northeastern Catalonia region represented a quirky and legally touchy illustration of Spain's deep financial woes.

In a heist that could fill the mother of all bottomless cups, thieves in Austria have made off with 2 tons of coffee.

Police say the culprits broke into a wholesaler and coffee-roaster's warehouse east of Vienna, loaded a stolen van with the goods and then drove off.

Iraq is no stranger to battles, but this is not one fought with rifles and rockets: when the bell sounds, trainers release cocks Daqduqa and Sammam into the ring.

The crowd, scattered across the makeshift stands in a dank Baghdad house, erupts into cheers, baying for blood.

A handful of grimy New York pay phones will be reincarnated as touch-screen pads with online access to neighborhood information, the mayor's office said Monday.

A pilot program starts next month that will see 250 phone booths converted to house 32-inch (81 cm) screens, instead of phones, across the city.

Philippine and Vietnamese troops plan to hold joint "fun games" in the Spratlys to calm tensions over the disputed island chain in the South China Sea, the Philippine navy chief said Tuesday.

The islands, also claimed by China, are regarded as one of Asia's most dangerous potential flashpoints but there will be no weapons involved, said Vice Admiral Alexander Pama.

He's on the lam, but Travis A. Nicolaysen still had time to update his Facebook page.

The 26-year-old has eluded authorities since two foot chases Wednesday and a dragnet that included a police dog tracking him through a Port Angeles neighborhood.

An artist is welcoming tourists to his Dublin home -- made from 1.4 billion euros ($1.8 billion) of shredded bank notes -- to stimulate debate about Ireland's ailing economy, he told Agence France Presse on Monday.

Frank Buckley built the three-roomed apartment-cum-gallery over three months, from bricks made of mulched, decommissioned notes provided by Ireland's Central Bank.

A jealous Taiwanese husband led an assault on a Facebook user who had flirted with his wife online, beating him to death with baseball clubs, police said Monday.

Chou You-huang, a 34-year-old resident of south Taiwan's Pingtung County, told police that he had requested a meeting with the 40-year-old victim, Chuang Shih-Chang, after he found out about the online relationship.

It was a bad week for plenty of beachgoers in Nicaragua and a slightly better week for jellyfish, which stung at least 855 bathers who hit the beach on Holy Week break, authorities said.

The vacationers were treated for jellyfish stings on Nicaragua's Pacific coast, most of them at the crowded beaches of Jiquilillo, Masachapa and Pochomil, the local Red Cross said.

Are you lonely? Do you miss a loved one? Is your marriage on the rocks? Just place a call to a Stockholm opera and a singer will make a house call with an aria specially chosen to fit your state of mind.

"I've had the experience of singing for a couple who had lost touch with each other a bit," said soprano Henriikka Groendahl.