Rescuers in Australia are trying to save a baby humpback whale which they say took a shine to a moored yacht, possibly mistaking the vessel for its lost mother. The whale calf was found at Pittwater, north of Sydney, after apparently being abandoned by its mother off the Australian east coast.
"The calf has spent the last day or so in Pittwater and we believe it has been nuzzling up to a moored vessel in an attempt to find milk," said Chris McIntosh, local manager for the New South Wales state national parks service.
A team of workers towed the private yacht out to sea to try to lure the calf into deeper water in the hope that it would find its mother, but it was spotted close to the beach at Pittwater again yesterday. Experts said the baby whale cannot survive more than a few days without milk.
Bono lets slip new U2 songs
Rock stars may have to rein in their taste for loud music after a fan overheard U2 frontman Bono listening to tracks from the group's forthcoming album and recorded them before posting the songs on the internet.
The fan heard the music blaring out of the Irish rocker's holiday home in the south of France, recorded it on his mobile phone and posted four tracks on video-sharing website YouTube, newspapers and music websites reported yesterday.
The previously unheard songs had now been removed from the website for copyright reasons but continued to circulate via e-mail, the Irish Independent newspaper said.
Nobody at U2's record label could immediately be reached for comment on the reports.
Irish PM: "Call my predecessor"
Ever wished your predecessor was there to take the flak for the problems you inherited? Ireland's Prime Minister Brian Cowen may have the answer.
Three months after Mr Cowen took office, callers to two numbers for the Prime Minister's office listed in Dublin's telephone directory were still being redirected to the previous incumbent. "Thank you for calling the office of the Taoiseach (Prime Minister), however if you wish to call Bertie Ahern's constituency office, please ring..." a recorded message instructed callers.
Mr Cowen became Prime Minister in May after Mr Ahern stepped down amid mounting questions over his complex personal finances. Mr Ahern said he was "extremely unlucky" to get caught up in the corruption investigation, but commentators have described the timing of his departure as a stroke of genius.
He quit a month before a referendum in which Irish voters ignored government pleas and rejected the European Union's reform plans, throwing the bloc into diplomatic turmoil. Meanwhile, the country's once booming economy is now on the brink of its first recession in a quarter of a century.
Sea turtles march into restaurant
About 60 newly hatched sea turtles lost their way during their ritual passage to the sea and marched into an Italian restaurant instead, a conservation worker said yesterday.
The baby turtles - which ended up under the tables of startled diners at the beachside restaurant - were probably thrown off track and lured by the eatery's bright lights, said Antonio Colucci, who was called to help rescue the group.
The stranded turtles, which had hatched on a beach in the southern Italian region of Calabria, were released into the sea.
Stolen Picasso print recovered
Brazilian police have recovered a Pablo Picasso print that was stolen with three other valuable artworks from Sao Paulo's Pinacoteca Museum in broad daylight in June.
The print, Minotaur, Drinker and Women, was found over the weekend at an undisclosed location in the west of Sao Paulo, a spokesman for the city's Public Security Secretariat said yesterday, without providing further details.
The 1933 print by the late Spanish artist was stolen on June 12 by three armed robbers, who calmly strolled into the Pinacoteca Museum in downtown Sao Paulo and held security guards at gunpoint while they completed the heist.
Topless parade given go-ahead
A New Zealand court has allowed a parade of topless porn stars on motor bikes to proceed on the main street of the country's biggest city, local media said yesterday.
Auckland City Council had sought a court injunction to stop the "Boobs on Bikes" parade, scheduled for Wednesday, saying it breached a bylaw banning offensive public events.
But Judge Nicola Mathers said, while opponents may find the parade offensive or tasteless, the fact that 80,000 people had gathered for a similar event last year meant a significant number of people did not agree with the critics, New Zealand Press Association said.
The parade on Queens Street, featuring leather-clad local and international porn stars, is part of an "Erotica Expo" organised by self-styled "porn king" Steve Crow.
"Living goddesses" have rights
Nepal's Supreme Court has ordered the government to ensure basic health care and education for virgin girls worshipped as "living goddesses" in a centuries-old tradition in the Himalayan nation.
A few children, some as young as three or four, in the Kathmandu valley are picked by Buddhist priests as kumaris, or "living goddesses". They are then confined to temples until puberty, visited by thousands of devotees.
Critics say the tradition violates the children's rights and leaves them unprepared to face real life when they return to their families after reaching puberty.