Singer Toni Braxton has been admitted to hospital in Los Angeles for “minor health issues” related to lupus.

The R&B performer said in a Tweet that she was in hospital adding: “But no worries! I will be out any day now.”

The 45-year-old singer of Un-break My Heart revealed two years ago she had lupus, a potentially deadly auto-immune disease that killed her uncle. She also suffers from a narrowing of the blood vessels in her heart.

Braxton said in a recent interview that doctors told her the lupus diagnosis meant her performing career would probably be diminished and the disease helped push her into a recent bankruptcy. (PA)

Track down giant pythons for cash in Florida?

Floridians keen to protect the fragile ecosystem of the Everglades will have their mettle tested next month as the wildlife service seeks help in eradicating the giant Burmese python.

The public has been asked to join in a month-long hunt for the invasive species, which, lacking natural predators, snack on native birds, deer, bobcats and other animals, some of them protected.

Cash prizes as high as $1,500 (€1,160) will be up for grabs when January 12 kicks off a month-long programme of ‘harvesting’ the giant snakes, organised by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

Current estimates indicate there are now hundreds of thousands slithering across southern Florida. In August, University of Florida scientists examined a record 5.36-metre specimen that had 87 eggs. (AFP)

Two happy campers in a sewer in Colombia

Stick your head in a sewer in the Colombian city of Medellin and you’ll find the cozy home of Miguel Restrepo and his wife, two happy underground squatters, and their dog Blackie.

Their digs are too small to stand up in, and it measures just three by two metres. But somehow they have fitted it with a kitchen, a TV and a tile floor.

It’s been home sweet home for 20 years. Restrepo, 62, says he would not give it up for anything because living above ground would mean paying for public services, taxes and other kinds of hassle.

In his slice of middle earth, Restrepo says he lives “better than the President”.

“I would not trade this for a house,” he told AFP.

Posh, or comfortable, it is not. But they have managed to seal themselves off from the rest of the sewer system by building cement walls.

Their place has a closet, a radio and a fan. That’s a big bonus because it gets real hot down there. (AFP)

Obama aide Axelrod loses moustache on TV for charity

Washington’s most famous moustache is no more. Senior Barack Obama adviser David Axelrod shaved his iconic lip hair live on television after raising $1 million for epilepsy research.

Axelrod said he has sported a moustache – a rarity in official Washington – for 40 years. “We’re cutting it off because there are people who have lost a lot more than a moustache to epilepsy,” said Axelrod, 57, as he prepared to lose the moustache live on the MSNBC news show Morning Joe.

Axelrod was saved from a hack job when the TV hosts stepped aside and let a professional barber with a straight razor do the job. (AFP)