MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Dan Brown's description of Manila as "the gates of hell" in the American novelist's latest book has not gone down well with officials in the Philippine capital.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — For bicyclist Rudi Saldia, you could say a cat is his co-pilot.

While remodeling his newly purchased home in Elbow Lake, Minn., David Gonzalez noticed something unusual amid the old newspapers that had been used as wall insulation. It was a copy of Action Comics No. 1 from 1938, the very first comic to feature the granddaddy of all superheroes, Superman. StarTribune.com spoke with Gonzalez …

Right place, right time, right truck. A truck driver with incredible timing and quick thinking helped save the life of a man whose pickup had flipped into a roadside pond, WCCO.com reports. Scott Rosenberg stopped his semitrailer when he saw the smashed pickup in the pond on the morning of May 9 near Stillwater, Minn.  …

There’s a new map and website on the Internet showing the best 50 BBQ joints. And they’re all in Texas. Of course, the list—compiled annually since 2008—was done by a Lone Star state publication, Texas Monthly. Editor Jake Silverstein told Yahoo News by phone that he’s ready to "declare war" on all famous BBQ regions,  …

A goat possibly headed to the slaughterhouse made a daring and dangerous escape into traffic on a busy highway in New Jersey. The sure-footed animal managed to evade five Jersey City police officers for almost two hours on Tuesday, zigzagging across lanes of traffic on the Pulaski Skyway, causing traffic jams and a minor …

A 14-year-old girl named Tina S. may be the next Eddie Van Halen. In a clip recently posted to YouTube, Tina shows off her otherworldly guitar chops with a cover of the solo from Van Halen's "Eruption." The clip lasts just a minute and a half, but that's more than enough time for her to [...]

Penguins are excellent swimmers. But even with wings, the aquatic flightless birds do not take to the skies despite having wing-like flippers. In fact, a new study says that penguins became so good at swimming that they eventually evolved to specialize at that skill at the cost of airborne flight. "Like many people, I've …

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Argentinos Juniors, staring into the jaws of relegation, have had a set of false teeth thrown at their coach by an angry fan while the club's president has quit his seat at the Argentine FA. An irate fan threw a set of dentures at coach Ricardo Caruso Lombardi during Monday's 3-1 home defeat by …

JERSEY CITY, N.J. (AP) — A goat believed to have escaped en route to a slaughterhouse snarled the morning commute along one of the busiest roadways in northern New Jersey on Tuesday, leading police on a nearly two-hour chase.

By Barbara Liston ORLANDO, Florida (Reuters) - An 18-foot, 8-inch Burmese python set a record for the longest snake ever captured in South Florida, where the exotic species has taken up residence. College student Jason Leon snared the female python in a rural area southeast of Miami earlier this month, when he saw part …

Leave it to someone with military training to execute such a successful and well-planned mission. Maj. Jake Brittingham had been stationed in Africa for the past five months, and he's been badly missed by his daughter Emma. So to surprise her, he showed up at her first gymnastics competition. Luckily, the moment was captured …

Call it food for thought. Or perhaps thought for food: NASA has given a six-month grant to a company developing what could be the world’s first 3-D food printer. And the project’s developer, reports Quartz, an online digital news site, believes the invention could be used to end world hunger. Quartz explains that the printer …

If you're dining on an ice floe, first be sure it's firmly attached to land. If not, you might end up like a group of American tourists who had to be rescued after they floated 10 meters (33 feet) from shore. The Iceland Review reports that the travelers, who were at the Fjallsárlón glacial lagoon [...]

PRAGUE (Reuters) - Czech police found a million liters of illegal alcohol hidden in underground tanks in one of the biggest seizures of untaxed booze ever. Police have been chasing a widespread web of untaxed alcohol makers and distributors since a batch that included poisonous methyl alcohol killed 45 people and forced …

BANGKOK (AP) — Researchers say Thailand is showing the world how to respond to the global food crisis: by raising bugs for eating.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - A Chinese businessman has paid a world record 310,000 euros ($398,500) for a Belgian pigeon, highlighting Asia's huge and growing interest in racing birds. The one-year-old award-winning pigeon named Bolt was bred by Belgian pigeon fancier Leo Heremans, a well-known name to pigeon enthusiasts, who sold …

So-called “pedal pubs” are popping up in more than two-dozen cities across the country. And in some of those places, riders can sip on an alcoholic beverage while sitting across a bar from fellow cyclists. What exactly is a pedal pub? USA Today reports they are sort of like a modern day trolley meets the [...]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Southeast Asian nation formerly known as Burma received further backing from the White House on Monday in its campaign to be called Myanmar. Successive U.S. governments have refused to acknowledge the name change made in the late 1980s by the country's military rulers. The United States for years …

By Paul Casciato LONDON (Reuters) - Some spectators at London's Chelsea Flower Show wouldn't be caught dead with one in the boot of their Bentley, but garden gnomes have turned up at the show's 100th edition this year, for charity. The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), which runs Chelsea in the grounds of the Christopher …

The Classical Fast Draw Society is home to a select number of expert marksmen. But their most remarkable member is not technically their most accurate. Jim Miekka only hits about 80 percent of his targets, firing shots at just half a second apart. But the truly incredible thing about Miekka is that he’s totally blind.  …

CHICAGO (AP) — A manager of Chicago's Navy Pier rode the tourist spot's Ferris wheel for more than two days — 384 times, up and around — bringing the world record for the longest ride to the birthplace of the amusement park favorite.

By Jonathan Kaminsky OLYMPIA, Washington (Reuters) - With Washington state about to embark on a first-of-its-kind legal market for recreational marijuana, the budding ranks of new cannabis growers face a quandary over what to do with the excess stems, roots and leaves from their plants. Susannah Gross, who owns a five-acre …