Brazil's Carnival revelry has closed with the anxiously awaited award for the best parade in Rio de Janeiro going to a show featuring skiers dressed like Batman and a pregnant drum queen.
The Unidos da Tijuca samba group won the battle for Rio bragging rights for the first time in 74 years for their parade entitled "It's a Secret!" that also featured rapid-fire costume changes and a dancing impersonator of the late pop singer Michael Jackson. Its drum section was led by a four-month pregnant TV presenter, Adriane Galisteu.
Each year samba "schools" parade elaborate sparkling costumes, props and extravagant floats. Judges' marks for the parades are painstakingly read out for over an hour on national TV on Ash Wednesday. Although near-naked women in tiny bikinis have become the iconic image of Rio's Carnival, exposed flesh is a small aspect of the elaborate displays that provide thousands of people with work and happiness each year. (Reuters)
Death by cat food
Australia's vile and poisonous plague of cane toads may finally have met its match - and it comes in a tin of cat food.
After years spent trying to batter, gas, run over and even freeze the toxic toads out of existence, scientists say just a dollop of Whiskas could stop the warty horde. The cat food attracts Australia's carnivorous meat ants, which swarm over and munch on baby toads killing 70 per cent of them.
Australia is beset by millions of cane toads which were introduced from Hawaii in 1935 to control scarab beetles. The toads, which are prolific maters, eat anything and are incredibly tough, secrete poison that kills pets and wildlife and injure humans, prompting several - unsuccessful - campaigns to wipe them out.
The good news is that native frogs were able to dodge the hungry ants. (AFP)
Tintin cartoon goes up in smoke
A classic Tintin cartoon in which characters smoked pipes and cigars cost a TV station $33,000, after Turkey's state media regulator fined it for violating an anti-tobacco law that bans smoking on air.
The Higher Board of Radio and Television fined private broadcaster TV8 50,000 lira for airing scenes from a Tintin cartoon that showed characters smoking. Turkish TV stations usually pixelate images of cigarettes and other forms of smoking in films and series to abide by a 2008 law that makes it illegal to broadcast such scenes. (Reuters)
Tourist turn-off
The presence of too many fellow British tourists is turning travellers off visits to Spain as the country is "not foreign enough", it has been revealed.
The number of English-themed bars in Spain is also a deterrent, a survey by online travel agent www.sunshine.co.uk found.
Spain and its Canary Islands were among the five destinations which have seen the least growth in bookings of late. (PA)
Noodle soup for $100 a bowl
A Japanese restauranteur has turned the nation's everyday comfort food, ramen or noodle soup, into a pricey, gourmet affair that costs more than $100 and takes three days to fully prepare.
The "Five-taste Blend Imperial Noodles" offered at Tokyo's Fujimaki Gekijyo restaurant is ultimately just a bowl of soup and noodles, albeit an expensive one.
However, owner Shoichi Fujimaki said it's the soup, and the more than 20 ingredients used to make it, that elevated the dish from street food into five-star cuisine, with the price tag to match.
A bowl of ramen from any of the little stalls found everywhere in Japan will usually cost $10, at the most, but Fujimaki's ramen costs $110 a bowl and uses top-grade Chinese stock blended with another stock inspired by the spicy, Thai tom yum soup as well as spices, meats and vegetables. (Reuters)
Korean man steals 1,200 pairs of used shoes
A South Korean who stole 1,200 pairs of expensive shoes from funeral homes while posing as a mourner has been arrested, police in Seoul said yesterday.
The man identified only as Park, 59, took off his own shoes before entering mourning rooms and donned more expensive footwear when he left.
He intended to sell them through his own second-hand shoe business, police said.
Koreans normally remove outdoor footwear when indoors, especially at funeral homes.
Police said they caught Park stealing three pairs of shoes at one funeral home.
When they raided his warehouse, they found 1,200 pairs stored according to size in preparation for resale. (AFP)