There's something about a British general election that brings out oddballs, loons and eccentric buffoons who dream of making it to parliament.

In the run-up to polling day on May 7, Britain's stuffy politicians are sharing the hustings with quirky candidates poking fun at the whole election ritual.

There may be no such thing as a free lunch, but fear not because there was free coffee supposedly going at Starbucks in North America on Friday after a major computer glitch.

Thousands of people flooded Twitter to boast that they paid nothing for their caffeine fix, while others complained that they had not been so lucky and had been asked to leave the store because it was closing early.

Prosecutors detained 14 people Friday who are suspected of belonging to a network of well-dressed robbers who were trained to rob luxury items in Romania and the European Union.

The alleged leader was among those detained and prosecutors have asked for their arrest.

Chinese officials are launching a campaign to crack down on stripteases and other lewd shows that have become popular at funerals in some rural areas, the Ministry of Culture said Friday.

The ministry said in a statement that it will tighten control over rural culture, where vulgar performances have been thriving because of a general lack of cultural events.

Kenyan road safety authorities have threatened to charge injured pedestrians with attempted suicide in a bid to halt a rise in road accidents in the east African nation.

The warning came as police revealed road fatalities were up 10 percent this year, with jaywalkers accounting for nearly half those killed.

A naked nationalist is stirring up election billboards in Japan, offering a bit of colour -- and a lot of flesh -- to get out the vote.

Right winger Teruki Goto is pictured on his campaign poster in his birthday suit, wielding a samurai-style sword in front of two Rising Sun flags and the imperial chrysanthemum crest.

A healthy sea lion pup that was returned to the sea by deputies after waddling a quarter-mile onshore seemed to be staying in the waves on Wednesday — at least for now, officers said.

"There's no reports of him running down the street or anything," Mendocino County sheriff's Capt. Greg Van Patten said.

Baldness among older men is not a medical condition requiring health insurance companies to cover a toupee or wig, a German federal court ruled Wednesday, turning down a 76-year-old man's bid for false hair.

The man from the western town of Contwig, who has suffered from a lack of scalp hair as well as eyebrows and eyelashes since 1983, took his case against his insurance company to the Federal Social Court.

Globe-trotting U.S. diplomat John Kerry is known for his sweet tooth. But he surprised top chefs this week by revealing he loves to cook, and once ran a bakery.

Back in the 1970s when he was "bored stiff" working in a private law practice in his home town of Boston, he and a friend hit upon a madcap idea to open a late-night cookie shop.

Venice Beach, a California town known for its laid back style in an already laid back state, wants women on its shores to be able to go topless.

In doing so it cites what it calls links with Europe as it seeks an easing of US laws that many foreign visitors find prudish.