Under a shower of confetti and pulsating samba beats, legendary King Momo on Friday officially launched Rio's famed Carnival, a dazzling extravaganza broadcast to a worldwide television audience.

Flanked by his queen and two princesses, the blue-crowned king, 160-kilogram (352 pounds) Milton Junior, symbolically received a giant key to the city from Rio Mayor Eduardo Paes.

Catholics and conservatives have denounced as blasphemous two recent exhibitions in Madrid featuring kinky nuns in lingerie and tattooed and near-naked Christs, demonstrating outside one gallery.

Catholic group AES called a demonstration for Friday evening outside the Fresh Gallery in Madrid against its latest exhibition: "Obscenity", a collection of photographs by Canadian artist Bruce LaBruce.

A mob burned alive a 40-year-old woman on Friday after accusing her of casting black magic spells in a remote village in southern Nepal, police said.

Dengani Mahato died after she was severely beaten, doused in kerosene and set alight for allegedly practicing witchcraft, Gopal Bhandari, a superintendent of police in Chitwan district, told Agence France Presse.

What to do when burglaries get out of hand?

In Denmark, police think they might have the answer: Turn to the experts themselves, the housebreakers.

Forget the three little pigs hiding from the big bad wolf. These six little pigs have found a new friend in a maternal French bulldog named Baby.

The Lehnitz animal sanctuary outside Berlin said Baby took straight to the wild boar piglets when they were brought in Saturday, three days old and shivering from cold.

The government of Rio de Janeiro state will distribute more than three million condoms free of charge during Brazil's five-day carnival that begins Friday.

State health officials said their "using a condom rates 10 in harmony" campaign aims to prevent AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, or STDs, particularly among the young.

French police were investigating Thursday the theft of a diamond-studded dog collar from a grave at the world's oldest pet cemetery, whose most famous tenant is Hollywood canine star Rin Tin Tin.

"The grave of a dog buried with a diamond collar worth 9,000 euros (11,700 dollars) was desecrated on the night February 4 to 5. The investigation is being conducted by the local station," a police official told Agence France Presse.

A Florida man trying to kick the smoking habit was puffing on anelectronic cigarette when a faulty battery caused it to explode in his mouth, taking out some of his front teeth and a chunk of his tongue and severely burning his face, fire officials said Wednesday.

"The best analogy is like it was trying to hold a bottle rocket in your mouth when it went off," saidJoseph Parker, division chief for the North Bay Fire Department. "The battery flew out of the tube and set the closet on fire."

A French man has won custody of a black terrier named Poupette (Dolly) following a legal battle with his ex-girlfriend who asked a court to award her the dog after their break-up.

The man's lawyer, Isabelle Terrin, said Wednesday that a judge near the southern city of Marseille had ruled that Poupette could be considered property and the man's previous possession of the dog entitled him to remain her owner.

A video that seems to show Vladimir Putin going on trial but is in fact a cleverly-edited montage became an Internet hit in Russia on Wednesday ahead of presidential polls with two million views.

The minute-long video appears on first glance to show a packed courtroom with Vladimir Putin standing in the cage-like enclosure for defendants, with his head bowed, facing trial on charges of theft and terrorism.