SYDNEY (Reuters) - An Australian performance artist set a new Guinness World Record on Monday by simultaneously swallowing 18 swords, each nearly as long as two and a half rulers.

WELLINGTON (Reuters) - A tourist who got lost on a New Zealand mountain was rescued after sending text messages to his family in Greece, newspapers and websites reported on Monday.

SYDNEY/LONDON (Reuters) - British broadcaster ITV pleaded guilty to animal cruelty and was fined by an Australian court on Monday after a rat was killed and eaten on the reality TV show "I'm a Celebrity ... Get Me Out of Here."

SYDNEY (Reuters) - An Australian banker who became an internet sensation after he was caught on live television viewing images of a scantily clad supermodel on his computer will keep his job, Macquarie Bank said Friday.

ROME (Reuters) - Fast food chain McDonald's has teamed up with the Italian government to cook up a hamburger with a national twist, but the unusual initiative is giving some food lovers cultural indigestion.

PORT BLAIR, India (Reuters) - One of the world's oldest dialects, which traces its origins to tens of thousands of years ago, has become extinct after the last person to speak it died on a remote Indian island.

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - A Chinese woman is seeking extensive plastic surgery to look like U.S. actress Jessica Alba, mainly because she hopes to win back her boyfriend who she said always wished she looked more like the Hollywood star.

DUBAI (Reuters) - A traditional Emirati restaurant in Dubai has added a new entree to its menu billed as a fat-free choice for carnivorous but health-conscious diners: the Camel Burger.

SYDNEY (Reuters) - A red-faced banker has been caught looking at racy near-nude photographs on his computer, with his actions broadcast live on Australian television.

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - A South African minibus taxi driver five times over the legal blood alcohol limit at breakfast time was arrested on Wednesday for transporting 49 children in a 16-seat vehicle.

LJUBLJANA (Reuters) - A Slovenian who saved his three dogs from being put down for attacking humans was himself mauled to death by them, police said Wednesday.

WELLINGTON (Reuters) - A 14-year old New Zealand girl has been praised for fighting off a shark with her boogie board after it had bitten her. The shark bit Lydia Ward on the hip as she was standing in waist-deep water on a beach near the southern New Zealand city of Invercargill on Monday, the Southland Times newspaper reported.

SYDNEY (Reuters) - When doctors and staff realized that a cat living in a U.S. nursing home could sense when someone was going to die, the feline, Oscar, was portrayed as a furry grim reaper or four-legged angel of death.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Would the Black Eyed Peas persuade you to shop at Target or Eric Clapton lure you to switch to T-Mobile?

SYDNEY (Reuters) - When doctors and staff realized that a cat living in a U.S. nursing home could sense when someone was going to die, the feline, Oscar, was portrayed as a furry grim reaper or four-legged angel of death.

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - The Internet potentially will lose one of its main sources of bestiality videos under a ban approved Tuesday by the upper house of the Dutch parliament.

LONDON (Reuters) - The UK government launched plans on Monday to halve the number of smokers by the end of the decade and said it would consider removing branding from cigarette packets and banning cigarette vending machines.

MANILA (Reuters) - Members of the Hanunuo Mangyan tribe in the Philippines do not leave their dead in the grave for long, digging up the remains of loved ones in an unusual revival ritual that itself is slowly dying out.

BEIJING (Reuters) - Sexual frustration amongst migrant workers in China's booming southern province of Guangdong is leading to a host of social problems and must be tackled, state media on Saturday cited a local official as saying.

LONDON (Reuters) - Elizabethan theater-goers chomped on an exotic array of foods while enjoying the latest plays of the day, new evidence found at the sites of Shakespearean playhouses in London suggests.