In Japan, the Internet café has become a substitute for home. A survey of Japan's ministry of health indicated that the number of people who sleeps over at 24-hour Internet cafes for having no home or job total 5,400 nationwide, the Kyodo News reported. The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare's findings disclosed on Tuesday reveals what could be a widening of the rich-poor gap in Asia's richest country.

A performance at the Edinburgh fringe festival, the Circus of Horrors, certainly lived up to its name when one of the unlucky performers had to be rushed to the hospital after his penis got stuck in a vacuum cleaner during his on-stage routine. Daniel Blackner, aka "Captain Dan the Demon Dwarf," had to be hospitalized after his one-man act went terribly awry, resulting in his penis getting stuck inside a Hoover vacuum, much to Blackner's - and the crowd's - horror.

The military has already identified the killers of 14 Marines ambushed by Islamic secessionists in southern Philippines last July 10. But it is still in the dark as to whom among the three wives of one of the Marine casualties will get a scholarship intended for children of fallen soldiers. Local newspapers reported that Corporal Russel Panaga, who was among those beheaded by members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, left three wives, two of whom he sired three children.

Iran has woven the world's largest carpet which is the size of a soccer field, the AFP reported on Tuesday. The AFP reported that the wool carpet measures 5,626 square meters (60,546 square feet). The United Arab Emirates ordered it for $5. 8 million to be used in a mosque in its capital Abu Dhabi named after UAE founder and president Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahayan.

As the number of cars in the upcoming southern city of Shenzhen has touched the one million mark, the city's mayor has urged its residents to stop the purchase of new cars. With 90,000 new cars registered already this year, Xu Zongheng fears that more cars in the city will give rise to the traffic problems. The English-language China Daily quotes Zongheng as saying, "Problems arising from the city's traffic are mounting. I hope residents take this into consideration when planning to buy cars. "