Near-naked women adorn billboards across the Philippine capital but similar images of men have been deemed too risqué, with giant posters of bare-chested rugby players pulled following a public outcry.

The huge billboards of the men wearing only the close-fitting underwear of a clothing company prompted much comment on the streets of Manila and online after they appeared about a week ago.

A sticky-fingered person might be wandering the streets of Philadelphia in a flowing judicial robe.

A municipal judge on Wednesday said he had his official garb taken from the robing room at the city courthouse while he was in the men's room. Judge Joseph Waters Jr. says he had left the door of the room unlocked.

Italy's Latin lover prime minister Silvio Berlusconi is in robust health and "can have sex six times a week," but should take one day off to rest, his doctor said in an interview published Wednesday.

"He's a superior man, both physically and intellectually," Umberto Scapagnini, a member of Berlusconi's People of Freedom party and the premier's personal doctor said in an interview with Novella 2000 magazine.

The smartly-dressed Japanese husband and wife stand side-by-side, surrounded by close friends, in front of a clergyman-like figure. He asks them to smash their wedding rings with a hammer.

Hiroki Terai is a self-styled "divorce planner" who conducts solemn ceremonies during which he invites couples to show their disaffection for one another before they -- in most cases -- walk away smiling.

It's all innocent stuff: square-jawed boy meets doe-eyed girl, they fall in love, encounter a few rocky moments but ultimately seal their union with a kiss or a vague hint of sex.

Wholesome yarns like this form the heartbeat of romantic fiction, a genre that has been in existence since the mid-18th century and today sells by the bucket load.

Police here seized nearly two tons of cocaine concealed in a shipment of pineapples bound for Spain, and arrested three suspects, officials said Wednesday.

Police chief General Rodrigo Suarez said the seizure of 1.9 tons of cocaine came after a tip about a gang that buys, stores and exports cocaine by hiding the stimulant drug in boxes of pineapples being shipped to Valencia in Spain.

Tens of thousands of people packed Pamplona's streets Wednesday for a drunken kick-off to Spain's best-known fiesta: the nine-day San Fermin bull-running festival.

Swilling gallons of beer and sangria, Spaniards and foreigners jammed into the main Plaza del Ayuntamiento to hear the traditional shout from a City Hall balcony: "Viva San Fermin".

A Tiffany diamond bangle stuffed in a sock was among hundreds of items retrieved from Christchurch hotels abandoned during February's earthquake and now returned to their owners, reports said Wednesday.

Other pieces of abandoned luggage included thousands of dollars in foreign banknotes hidden in a fake soft drink can and a rare Steiff teddy bear belonging to an Australian child.

Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili's 15-year-old son on Tuesday joined his father as a global leader -- by claiming the world record for speed typing on an iPad.

Eduard Saakashvili achieved a world record for typing the English alphabet on an iPad in 5.26 seconds -- an improvement of 1.05 seconds on the previous record set by British teenager Charlie Joseph McDonnell in 2010.

The pimps and prostitutes of Yeongdeungpo start the day as if preparing for a siege, stocking their brothels with flammable liquid and gas containers. Large, red-lettered signs warn police that they're willing to die to protect their livelihoods.

"We can turn on the gas and light the flames," said a 47-year-old pimp who would only give her surname Sohn. "We know that we don't have much chance of winning ... but we're ready to die fighting."