Some people build swimming pools in their back yards. But outdoor pools in Alaska just won't work. Since this particular family lives on the outskirts of Anchorage, they decided to build a sturdy, colorful playground for their 3 and 4 year old sons, with smooth-stone gravel all around it to avoid knee scrapes and other injuries.

Dog owners in Amsterdam are angry after the city legalised public sex in one of the city's most famous parks.

Councillors agreed that heterosexual and gay couples could have sex in the Vondelpark which has ten million visitors a year.

Emotions against IKEA are running high in Denmark, where researchers claim the wildly popular Swedish home furnishings company only names cheap doormats and wall-to-wall carpeting after Danish towns, reserving Swedish names for its more expensive furniture. The discovery has the proud Danes itching for revenge.

A 13-foot Burmese python tried to swallow a 6-foot alligator in Everglades National Park - and exploded.

The voice actress tops the list of celebrity benefactors who help fund the church. According to Scientology magazine Impact, Kirstie Alley, the former Cheers actress, gave $5m last year, while John Travolta and his wife Kelly Preston gave $1m each and Elvis's ex, Priscilla Presley, made a donation of $50,000. All these celebrity donors were honoured at the Florida ceremony, according to the publication.

A Vietnamese woman searching for her father worked at his home in Taiwan for seven months without realising who he was before the relationship came to light, her father and police said Tuesday.