BERLIN Twenty-four years after it was buried, the head of a giant statue of Soviet revolutionary leader Vladimir Lenin was dug up from woodland on the outskirts of Berlin on Thursday to be displayed at an exhibition in the German capital. The monument was unce... More »
WASHINGTON Immigrants to the United States should “speak American,” former Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin said on Sunday, adding her voice to a controversy triggered by Donald Trump’s criticism of fellow Republican White House hopeful Jeb Bus... More »
ROME Pope Francis slipped out of the Vatican on Thursday evening to make a surprise visit to a Rome optician’s shop to get a new pair of eyeglasses, insisting that his old frames be re-used and that he would pay for them. Francis was driven to Ottica Spiezia o... More »
SYDNEY Around 40 kilograms (88 lb) of wool has been sheared from a sheep found near Australia’s capital, the RSPCA said on Thursday, making him unofficially the world’s woolliest. The animal, named Chris by his rescuers, was discovered on the northern outskirt... More »
WASHINGTON It was a creature that one scientist said resembled “a strange, gluttonous lizard that swallowed a small Frisbee.” But a sophisticated skull analysis showed that this reptile called Eunotosaurus africanus that lived in southern Africa 260 million ye... More »
LONDON A London skyscraper that made headlines for reflecting sunlight at an intensity that melted parts of a Jaguar car in the street below has been awarded the annual Carbuncle Cup that highlights perceived architectural horrors. Officially called 20 Fenchur... More »
WASHINGTON President Barack Obama on Monday will officially restore Denali as the name of North America’s tallest mountain, siding with the state of Alaska in ending a 40-year battle over what to call a peak that has been known as Mount McKinley. The historic ... More »
BOSTON A pair of skeletal sculptures that harness the power of the wind to walk strutted around Boston’s City Hall on Friday at the start of the U.S. tour of Dutch artist Theo Jansen’s “Strandbeests.” Constructed of PVC tubes and about the size of large sport-... More »
BERLIN Knut, the star polar bear who was hand-reared at Berlin zoo after his mother rejected him, had a type of auto-immune inflation of the brain that is found in humans, scientists said on Thursday. Knut, who was just four when he drowned at the zoo in 2011,... More »
BEIJING A television cameraman and his Segway succeeded in doing what none of Usain Bolt’s rivals could in the 200 meters final at world championships on Thursday — knock the Jamaican off his stride, and his feet, during his lap of honor. Bolt was taking the p... More »
VIENNA The European Union might have had a better start, but in the end it was the Balkan countries who brought the game home in this unlikely diplomatic soccer match on Wednesday to kick off the Western Balkan summit in Vienna. Team “FC EU”, made up of Austri... More »
LOS ANGELES Despite a devastating four-year drought that has forced strict water conservation measures across California, most Los Angeles County supervisors still have their cars washed two or three times a week, a local newspaper reported. The multiple weekl... More »
TORONTO At least two people may have committed suicide following the hacking of the Ashley Madison cheating website, Toronto police said on Monday, warning of a ripple effect that includes scams and extortion of clients desperate to stop the exposure of their ... More »
COPENHAGEN European Tour journeyman Andreas Harto stole the show at the Made In Denmark event by proposing to his girlfriend during the tournament in Farso on Friday. The Dane celebrated sinking a five-foot birdie putt at the par-three 16th by going down on on... More »
SEOUL His father was afraid to fly, but North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has taken to the skies, building a series of small runways long enough to land light, private aircraft next to some of his palaces, satellite imagery shows. Construction on Kim’s personal ... More »
WASHINGTON Scientists have invented a speedy method to make potent painkilling opioids using bioengineered baker’s yeast instead of poppies, but need to fine-tune the process to make it commercially viable, according to a study published on Thursday. The new m... More »
VANCOUVER He rides a Canada goose, slays a dragon and fist bumps an alien – and that’s just in the first 30 seconds of Wyatt Scott’s campaign video for the upcoming Canadian federal election. Scott, an independent who is running to represent a region of rural ... More »
LONDON Tadpoles are contracting a new, highly infectious disease that may be threatening frog populations worldwide, British scientists have found. A parasitic disease caused by single-celled microbes known as “protists” was found in the livers of tadpole samp... More »
BOSTON Federal investigators in Boston on Thursday released 25-year-old surveillance video showing a security guard admitting a man to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum the night before it was robbed of $500 million worth of art in the largest such heist in ... More »
GENEVA The remains of two young Japanese climbers missing on the Matterhorn mountain since a 1970 snow storm in the Swiss Alps have been identified through DNA testing of their relatives, police said on Thursday. Human bones spotted by a climber last September... More »
TORONTO Cheating spouses website AshleyMadison.com, facing hackers’ threats to leak clients’ nude photos and sexual fantasies, said it is heartened by some initial public response that sees the site as a victim. The website’s Canadian parent, Avid Life Media, ... More »
COPENHAGEN Chuckling “Ho ho ho” and waving to the public, dozens of Santas brought some Christmas cheer to the Copenhagen summer on Monday as they began their annual World Santa Claus Congress. Drawing Santas from around the world, the three-day event in the D... More »
SAN FRANCISCO/LONDON Scientists are about to embark on the biggest search yet for alien life, sweeping the skies for signals of civilizations beyond our solar system with $100 million from a Russian billionaire and the backing of physicist Stephen Hawking. Whe... More »
WASHINGTON If you feel like a human scream jolts the deep recesses of your brain, there’s a good reason for it. That is precisely what is happening, scientists say. Researchers who explored how the brain handles a scream said on Thursday the loud, high-pitched... More »
NEW YORK Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s campaign on Tuesday inadvertently tweeted a promotional photo featuring what appeared to be Nazi German soldiers superimposed on the U.S. flag alongside the controversial real estate magnate’s face. The... More »
KANSAS CITY, Mo. Rarely is a trophy fish so easy to land. An animal control officer in Olathe, Kansas, recently hauled in a 60-pound (27-kg) carp that was lying in a drainage ditch. A man out for a walk last week spotted the fish and called police, city animal... More »
PORTLAND, Ore. Hundreds of phallic sex toys have been seen hanging in recent days from power lines across Portland, Oregon, provoking laughter, blushing and lots of photos. The large white and bright orange dildos appear to have been strung together in pairs, ... More »
LONDON A quarter of dogs competing in the world’s biggest dog show are overweight, scientists said on Monday. An analysis of canines at Britain’s Crufts show – held annually since the reign of Queen Victoria – found 74 percent were in ideal condition but 26 pe... More »
SIEM REAP, Cambodia Pit, only two and with just one eye, needed only 11 minutes before he detected a deadly mine buried in a Cambodian field, work that humans with metal detectors could have taken up to five days to investigate. But Pit is not human. He is par... More »
CARACAS Origami-like boats made from Venezuela’s rapidly depreciating bolivar bills sit on the cash register of a small fruit and vegetable store in Caracas. Cashier Marisol Garcia makes the bolivar boats to illustrate roaring inflation and the currency’s tumb... More »
PARIS An attempt by Airbus to make history by crossing the English Channel in an electric plane ended in wounded pride on Friday after a French pilot claimed to have beaten it by hours. In a further twist, a Slovenian businessman said he might have beaten both... More »
(Editor’s Note: Please be advised that paragraph 2 contains language that some readers may find offensive) By Ben Klayman More »
DETROIT Barclay Oudersluys had competed in triathlons and ultramarathons but he wanted to do something bigger, so the Michigan native took a cue from his favorite movie. Inspired by Forrest Gump, the simple but well-intentioned man played by actor Tom Hanks in... More »
NEW YORK Which would you prefer: Naked pictures of yourself circulating on the Internet or a breach of your financial data? According to a new survey from Mastercard, 62 percent of Millennials would rather have their nude photos leaked online than have their f... More »
ATHENS With banks shut and the economy seizing up, some Greek newspapers like the Empros daily on the island of Lesvos are running out of paper and could be forced to stop sales altogether until the banks open again. The island’s biggest selling newssheet, Emp... More »
NEW YORK From rubber-soled footwear in the 1830s to a spike running shoe in the 1860s and luxury creations by designers Christian Louboutin and Prada, a new exhibit traces the history of sneakers from their humble beginnings to iconic status. “The Rise of Snea... More »
WASHINGTON It’s not every day a dinosaur gets named after you, so Canadian fossil hunter Wendy Sloboda celebrated in a unique way. “I got a new tattoo of my dinosaur recently to show it off. It is pretty exciting for me,” said Sloboda, who first spotted the fo... More »
LONDON Andy Murray goes to the dogs, or more precisely the puppies, in a video released on Tuesday which shows him playing at Wimbledon with five cocker spaniels being trained to become sniffer dogs. The six-week-old puppies are being raised by the Metropolita... More »
TOKYO Sakari Momoi, who was recognized as the world’s oldest man and credited healthy eating and getting plenty of sleep for his longevity, has died at the age of 112, Japanese media said on Tuesday. Momoi was born in an area of Fukushima hit hard by the tsuna... More »
LA PAZ A Bolivian avant-garde restaurant hopes this week to serve a well-known non-paying customer and receive a holy seal of approval for its new creation: a quinoa-based communion wafer. Chefs at the restaurant, Gustu, in La Paz expect Pope Francis to receiv... More »
NEW YORK The world’s oldest living person, the daughter of sharecroppers and granddaughter of slaves, celebrated her 116th birthday on Monday in New York. Susannah Mushatt Jones marked the occasion privately with family but a public celebration is planned for ... More »
CHICAGO The Grateful Dead gave what they say will be their last group performance on Sunday, playing to some 70,000 singing, dancing and tearful fans in Chicago’s Soldier Field. The four surviving members of the band ended their 50-year-run this weekend with t... More »
FRANKFURT The euro may be facing an existential crisis but the giant 14-metre sculpture of the euro symbol that towers over downtown Frankfurt, home of the European Central Bank, was still getting its biggest makeover in 13 years on Monday. Considered an eyeso... More »
MEXICO CITY It could have been the height of diplomatic embarrassment for Mexico’s president. When Enrique Pena Nieto hosted towering King Felipe of Spain this week, it was a tongue-in-cheek paint ad ridiculing his 10- inch height deficit that grabbed the head... More »
WASHINGTON Woolly mammoths spent their lives enduring extreme Arctic conditions including frigid temperatures, an arid environment and the relentless cycle of dark winters and bright summers. An exhaustive genetic analysis of these bygone Ice Age giants and th... More »
VATICAN CITY Pope Francis will decide for himself if he chews coca leaves in order to ward off altitude sickness when he lands next week at La Paz, Bolivia, the highest international airport in the world, the Vatican said on Tuesday. A Bolivian minister said o... More »
WASHINGTON More than half a billion years ago, a peculiar little creature with rows of spikes on its back and delicate, feather-like front limbs to strain bits of food from the water thrived in the primordial seas of what is now China. Scientists on Monday ann... More »
ASHGABAT Turkmenistan, which rights groups view as one of the most repressive countries in the world, celebrated President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov’s 58th birthday on Monday by opening a park in the capital Ashgabat bearing his name. It was the latest tribut... More »
ORLANDO, Fla. Walt Disney Co will ban selfie sticks starting next week at its theme parks around the world, the company said on Friday, joining a growing list of attractions that restrict the camera accessories for safety reasons. Beginning Tuesday, the compan... More »
WASHINGTON It was a creature so strange that experts literally could not make heads nor tails of it. But scientists said on Wednesday a new analysis of fossils of Hallucigenia, so named for its fantastical appearance, has given them for the first time a comple... More »
A woman walks past icons for Apple applications at the company’s retail store in San Francisco, California April 22, 2009. REUTERS/Robert Galbraith Tired of the same restaurants and clubs? Not sure if friends would want to venture to a new cafe or bar? New app... More »
