An elderly hermit living in a mud hut in the Serbian mountains inherited a fortune from her estranged husband in Australia -- but swiftly gave it all away to live off her meager pension, local media reported.

Marija Zlatic, 86, who lives two hours from the nearest village in eastern Serbia, recently received 940,000 Australian dollars ($660,000, 611,000 euros) bequeathed by her husband who died there in 2011, the Vecernje Novosti newspaper said this week.

Britain's Home Office was left red-faced Friday after unveiling new English tests for migrants -- but misspelling the word "language" in its announcement.

Prime Minister David Cameron on Monday launched a £20 million ($28.5 million, 26 million euro) language fund to help women, particularly Muslims, who arrive in Britain after getting married but struggle to speak English.

"I have a very free schedule": Spain's embattled incumbent prime minister fell prey to a practical joke when an imitator pretending to be Catalonia's new separatist leader managed to speak to him on the phone on radio.

The improbably successful joke broadcast Thursday by a radio station in Spain's Catalonia region, where an independence movement is gathering pace, is another blow for Mariano Rajoy whose attempts to form a government following inconclusive elections have so far fallen flat.

Argentina's new president Mauricio Macri, a business-friendly conservative from a wealthy family, will donate his salary to a Buenos Aires soup kitchen, a local newspaper reported Friday.

Macri, who earns 100,000 pesos a month as president ($7,500) -- 61,000 pesos after taxes -- will sign his paycheck over to a private charity that feeds 1,800 needy people daily in the poor neighborhood of Villa Soldati on the Argentine capital's south side, newspaper Clarin reported.

A 15-year-old Pakistani boy cut off his own hand believing he had committed blasphemy, only to be celebrated by his parents and neighbors for the act, police told AFP Friday.

Local police chief Nausher Ahmed described how an imam told a gathering at a village mosque that those who love the Prophet Mohammad always say their prayers, then asked who among the crowd had stopped praying.

Ever wonder what your pet Fido or feline is really thinking when you stroke or walk them? 

A Japanese company has developed a small device that, when attached to the necks of dogs and cats, it says can analyse more than 40 kinds of movements to discern their emotions.

About 70 Indian students walked barefoot over broken glass in an apparent bid to overcome exam phobia and stage fright, sparking a probe into the unusual character-building exercise.

Children as young as 12 took part in the ceremony on Wednesday intended to boost their mental health at a private coaching centre in the western state of Gujarat.

Dozens of live pigs tumbled out of a truck that overturned on a French motorway Wednesday, but showed little appetite for their sudden freedom.

"Most of the animals stayed near the vehicle," a road safety official, Captain Jean Chevassu, told AFP. 

Russia on Wednesday detained a senior prison service official on suspicion of stealing a 50-kilometer (31 mile) stretch of public road, investigators said.

Alexander Protopopov oversaw the dismantling of a concrete highway and sold off the slabs as prison service chief in the far northern Komi region, the Investigative Committee said in a statement.

A Dutch woman lost in a "dense and unforgiving" Australian forest for five days used "bushcraft", including covering herself with mud and stuffing her clothing with river moss, to stay alive, police said Wednesday.

Veronique Biunkens, 41, was staying at a retreat in Victoria state when she went for a walk in the bush last Thursday near Buchan, about 355 kilometers (220 miles) east of the state capital Melbourne, and did not return.