China will no longer wine and dine visiting heads of state at sumptuous banquets, cutting back the fare to just one soup, three dishes and no liquor. The scaled-down menu comes as China implements government savings and encourages thriftiness in the face of the global financial crisis, said Li Zhaoxing, spokesman for China's Parliament, which convenes this week.
"When our President... and Prime Minister invite foreign heads of state, during the state banquet, the menu will not exceed one soup and three dishes," Mr Li said.
"No Chinese liquor will be served."
Mr Li was speaking at Beijing's Great Hall of the People, where important foreign visitors are usually treated to elaborate banquets featuring fiery Chinese liquor in generous quantities.
Worms, bugs release laughing gas
Humans and farm animals were known to emit harmful greenhouse gases through digestion, but German researchers said on Tuesday that aquatic worms and bugs are also culprits, releasing laughing gas.
Scientists at the Max Planck Institute and Denmark's Aarhus University found that mussels, freshwater snails and other underwater creatures release nitrous oxide - laughing gas - when nitrate is present in water.
"There's nitrate in water that has been polluted by humans, so the more we pollute, the higher the production of this problematic gas will be," Fanni Aspetsberger from the institute told AFP on Tuesday. Ms Aspetsberger added that it could be "seriously detrimental" to the climate if nitrate pollution continues to rise the way it has over recent years.
Laughing gas is one of many greenhouse gases that have been released into the atmosphere since industrialisation. Such gases act as a blanket around the earth, causing temperatures to rise worldwide.
Spanish PM makes gaffe
Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero on Tuesday inadvertently used the F-word while expounding on a tourism agreement with Moscow in the presence of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.
The slip-up, which is being circulated in clips on the internet, occurred at a joint press conference.
"There is a big increase in the number of Spanish tourists heading to Russia, the number is at 500,000, we have therefore decided to sign an agreement to stimulate, to favour, to f...(expletive)," he said, pausing briefly before ending the sentence with "to support this tourism".
In Spanish the expression "para follar," meaning "to f...(expletive)," is pronounced very similarly to the expression "para apoyar," or "to support".
Couple drives 170km with spitting cobra
A couple drove 170 kilometres from South Africa's famous Kruger National Park with a highly venomous spitting cobra in their car, the Beeld newspaper reported yesterday.
Gordon Parratt, 69, felt the 85-centimetre long snake wind itself around his leg while he was driving.
At first he thought an insect had brushed his leg and swiped it away, but when he looked down he saw the snake next to his left foot, the report said.
"Fortunately I'm not the panicky type. My wife immediately put her feet up on the dashboard," said Mr Parratt.
"Its head came up to my knee," he said.
Finally the couple managed to call a snake expert to remove the cobra, the report said.
Shortlisted for 'best job in world'
A shortlist of 50 candidates from 22 countries has been selected for "the best job in the world" - being well paid to spend six months on a tropical Australian island, organisers said.
Ranging from dancers to scientists, chefs and students, the candidates are from countries including the United States, Britain, Russia, India, China, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan and Kenya.
They were selected from a total of 34,684 applicants from some 200 countries hoping to become "caretaker" of Hamilton Island on the Great Barrier Reef in a tourism promotion run by the Queensland state government.
The job pays about $100,000 for six months and includes free airfares from the successful candidate's home country to the island of white sands and clear waters.
In return, the winner will be expected to have as much fun as possible - soaking up the sun, swimming, snorkelling, sailing - and report to a global audience via weekly blogs, photo diaries and video updates.