9-inch copter lands in arms of Ohio court statue
MARION, Ohio (AP) — An unwanted modern addition has flown into the arms of a Lady Justice statue that sits atop a county courthouse in north-central Ohio.

Gerbils strut their stuff at New England pageant

BEDFORD, Mass. (AP) — The American Gerbil Society's annual pageant brought dozens of rodents scurrying to New England this weekend for a chance to win "top gerbil."

Proposed SC budget says no junk food for governor
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Lawmakers in South Carolina are trying to keep junk food out of the governor's mansion.

Man wearing ‘jail sucks’ T-shirt arrested and sent to jail
Don Castner was already in danger of arousing the suspicions of the fashion police. But the 39-year-old Floridian got a taste of delicious irony when he was arrested Wednesday by the actual police while wearing a T-shirt that read, “jail sucks!” The Smoking Gun reports that Castner was arrested on charges of welfare fraud as [...]

Retired racehorse finds calling as abstract painter

By Jeffrey B. Roth ROCKY RIDGE, Maryland (Reuters) - The horse is an American icon. It races gracefully, performs heavy farm tasks, can do tricks and, if television is to be believed, may even talk. But only one is an accomplished painter. Metro Meteor, a 10-year-old thoroughbred bay in rural Maryland, is enjoying singular success. Within just months of applying his first brush stroke to paper, he is juggling requests for public appearances, weighing endorsement offers and earning thousands of dollars for his work. ...

Miami cop fired 8 times could make it 9
For one police officer, will the ninth strike mean he's out? This time around, Sgt. German Bosque—who has been fired eight times from three different police departments—has been charged with leaving his assault weapon with his girlfriend’s father, a trained security guard, while on an eight-day leave, according to CBS4 Miami. That’s a no-no, says [...]

Giant rubber duck makes splash in Hong Kong harbor

HONG KONG (AP) — A six-story-high rubber duck is making a big splash in Hong Kong.

This is the end: Team of experts say humanity faces extinction
The crazy man walking down the city street holding a sign that reads “The end is near” might just have a point. A team of mathematicians, philosophers and scientists at Oxford University’s Future of Humanity Institute say there is ever-increasing evidence that the human race’s reliance on technology could, in fact, lead to its demise. [...]

Weigh more than 260 pounds? NYC says you’re too heavy for bike-share program
New York City has made international headlines with its efforts to curb obesity through proposals such as an attempted ban on large soda drinks. And the city has launched another effort that's also been enacted by several other U.S. cities, a bike-share program. But if you’re hoping to peddle away the pounds, there’s one catch: [...]

Official: Shiny dog bowl sparks Calif. house fire
SANTA ROSA, Calif. (AP) — A Northern California couple might be able to blame this one on the dog.

Former hostage left bemused by UK piracy mix up
LONDON (AP) — Arrrrgh! That must've been embarrassing.

Giant rubber duck sails into Hong Kong harbor
It was like something out of a Ducks Unlimited member’s dreams: A 54-foot-tall rubber duck sailed into a Hong Kong harbor on Thursday. Hundreds gathered at Victoria Harbour to cheer the arrival of the duck, which was designed by Dutch artist Flortentijn Hofman. The enormous duckling was built in 2007 and has since traveled to [...]

Man accused of shoplifting from Finders Keepers says store name misleading
After being accused of shoplifting from a Derry, N.H., thrift store called Finders Keepers, Ruben Pavon is arguing that he was simply confused by the store's name. WMUR.com reports that surveillance video shows Pavon taking a grill from the store's porch. Pavon told WMUR, "I grabbed the box. It was a fire pit, something like [...]

Wind farms to lure back German lobsters decimated by WW2

By Madeline Chambers BERLIN (Reuters) - New wind farms off Germany's North Sea coast will provide an ideal habitat that could help restore the lobster population near Heligoland after British bombing during and after World War II drove them away. Biologists at the Alfred-Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research are breeding 3,000 lobsters to be released next year into the Borkum Riffgat offshore wind farm near the island 70 km off the German-Dutch coast. The 1. ...

Texas judge issues double-entendre-filled ruling in strip club case
U.S. District Judge Fred Biery has spoken. The Texas judge issued a ruling in the case he called "The Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Bikini Top v. the (More) Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Pastie." Yes, indeed. At issue was a strip club's request for a preliminary injunction that would block enforcement of a San Antonio ordinance [...]

‘Creepy’ geometry homework assignment references serial killer Ted Bundy, peeping Tom
A substitute teacher at a Tulsa, Okla., high school may be out of a job after including references to serial killer Ted Bundy and a peeping Tom in a homework assignment. Oklahoma City's KFOR-TV reports that the substitute was filling in for a geometry teacher at Nathan Hale High School, where he distributed the assignment. [...]

2 pounds of loose skin removed from fat Oregon dog
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Obie the formerly obese dachshund is recovering after surgery at an Oregon veterinary clinic that removed 2 1/2 pounds of loose skin.

Bono's one-time Sydney holiday home sells for record $55.4 million

SYDNEY (Reuters) - A Sydney harborfront mansion has been sold for a record-setting A$54 million ($55.4 million) to a Chinese-born businessman, reinforcing the city's growing status as a hot property destination, newspapers said on Thursday. On the market for six years, the luxurious eight-bedroom "Altona" in exclusive Point Piper was bought in a secret deal with the businessman who currently lives in Melbourne, the newspapers reported. The property and its heated waterside pool and boathouse, rented by U2 rock star Bono in 2006 for a family holiday, was last sold in 2002 for A$28 million. ...

Frosty start for upstate NY ice cream truck season
GLOVERSVILLE, N.Y. (AP) — The chilly relationship between rival upstate New York ice cream truck operators got out of hand this season, with Sno Cone Joe trying to chase Mr. Ding-A-Ling out of the market, authorities said Wednesday.

Ice cream man reportedly threatens rival vendor: ‘This is my town!’
Here’s a scoop: Don’t try selling your push-up pops on Joshua Malatino’s corner. The owner of the Sno Cone Joe franchise reportedly stalked a Mr. Ding-a-Ling ice cream vendor, telling the man, “You don’t have a chance! This is my town!” The Gloversville, N.Y., police arrested Malatino after they spotted him tailgating the rival driver. [...]

Teen arrested, expelled for ‘science project gone bad’
A 16-year-old girl was arrested and expelled from her high school after what a friend called a "science project gone bad" resulted in a small explosion. WTSP reports that Kiera Wilmot of Bartow, Fla., is accused of mixing household chemicals in a small water bottle that later exploded at her high school. No one was [...]

Starving Jamestown settlers ate teen girl, Smithsonian says
The Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History held a press conference on Wednesday to announce breaking, albeit gruesome, colonial news: Evidence of the dismemberment and cannibalization of a 14-year-old British girl in Jamestown, Va., in 1609. Forensic anthropologists say marks found on the girl's bones, uncovered during a recent archaeological excavation, suggest her brain, [...]

Fast food takes over in France
It appears that freedom fries have liberated the French from their historically good taste. The French, who have long held high culinary standards, aren’t afraid to flaunt their commitment to quality. But even the world’s first foodies have their limits, if a new study is to be believed. That’s because new data says the French [...]

Dreadlocks banana guy gets Taiwanese animation treatment
Henry Gribbohm, the New Hampshire man who says he lost $2,600—his entire life savings—playing a carnival game that was "rigged," has become something of an Internet star. His story has gone viral thanks, in large part, to the stuffed banana he took home as a consolation prize. The 30-year-old from Epsom, N.H., was playing a [...]

Pink Floyd poser arrested for theft by swindle

ST. CLOUD, Minn. (AP) — A man is accused of pretending to be a member of rock band Pink Floyd at a Minnesota hospital — and racking up as much as $100,000 in unpaid medical bills.

Death Valley Dreamlapse 2 will knock your socks off
A new time-lapse video, Death Valley Dreamlapse 2 from Sunchaser Pictures, takes viewers on another virtual trip to beautiful and mysterious Death Valley. The footage, shot and edited by Gavin Heffernan, is sure to leave viewers spellbound. It includes sensational star trails, astonishing landscapes and wild photographic techniques like "moonpainting." Plus, you'll see the sliding [...]

9-year-old boy helps nab home invasion suspects
Two armed robbers were no match for a kid. According to a story from ClickonDetroit, the two men had knocked on the door of a Hazel Park, Mich., home on Sunday. Posing as friends of a family member, they forced their way into the house, had the adults lie down on the floor with blankets [...]

5 shot at ‘crab festival’ in Florida, but wait, there’s a catch
For most people, a Florida crab festival brings to mind a mellow time with ample beverages to wash down the abundance of crustacean culinary delights. But one Florida crab fest was anything but after five people were shot, including one man who later died. And as the Sun-Sentinel reports, shooting or not, the event isn’t [...]

Calif. woman accused of tainting OJ at Starbucks

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A California woman faces attempted murder charges after police say she tried to sneak orange juice bottles spiked with a lethal amount of rubbing alcohol inside a Starbucks.

300 gallons of urine found in man’s home
Police are trying to figure out exactly how to handle one man’s truly wasteful collection after 300 gallons of bottled urine were discovered inside a residential home. According to the News-Times, Connecticut Department of Energy & Environmental Protection (DEEP) spokesman Dennis Schain said authorities found “200 to 300 one-gallon plastic jugs filled with human urine" [...]

California woman accused of planting poisoned juice at Starbucks
By Laila Kearney SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A northern California woman has been arrested on suspicion of spiking orange juice bottles with a deadly dose of rubbing alcohol and stocking the bottles at a Starbucks coffee shop, law enforcement officials said on Tuesday. Ramineh Behbehanian, 50, was arrested at her San Jose home on Monday night and booked into the Santa Clara County Jail on charges of attempted murder and poisoning, San Jose Police Sergeant Jason Dwyer said. ...

Calif. school blunder: All dressed up but no prom
SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. (AP) — Everyone got stood up at one Southern California high school's prom. The dance itself was a no-show.