NEWSWORTHY
Asia Pacific / Offbeat Sep 12, 2018
South Korea students gain weight 'to dodge military service'
Twelve inventive South Korean college students deliberately made themselves overweight to dodge mandatory military service, a branch of the armed forces in Seoul has said. The students — all classical music majors at the same university in the capital — took protein powder and drank ...
World / Crime & Legal Sep 1, 2018
A naked man who sprinted with Los Angeles police officers running after him and a police helicopter overhead is in custody after a lengthy chase . The pursuit at dawn Friday captured live by TV news helicopters began after the man abandoned a suspected stolen ...
World / Offbeat Aug 30, 2018
It's a bird... it's a train... China pigeon racers cause flap with rail ruse
Two Chinese pigeon racers took cheating to an extreme when they hid their birds in milk cartons and hopped on a bullet train. Their homing pigeons scooped the first four places in the race and total prize money of more than 1 million yuan ($150,000). But ...
World / Offbeat Aug 26, 2018
Hold the Mayo! Florida town is changing its name temporarily
Mayo, Florida is holding the mayo, at least for a few days. The mayor of this tiny town of less than 1,500 residents, located where Florida's Panhandle morphs into a peninsula, is announcing Saturday that the city is switching its name to "Miracle Whip." But ...
World / Offbeat Aug 25, 2018
Black bear wandered into hotel that inspired Stephen King's 'The Shining'
A black bear wandered the lobby of the Colorado hotel that inspired Stephen King to write "The Shining." Stanley Hotel Vice President Reed Rowley tells KDVR-TV that 300 guests were sound asleep as the bruin figured out how to open the door and climbed over ...
World / Offbeat Jul 22, 2018
by Jesse Johnson
Ancient elixir, skeletal soup — or something less insidious — thousands of people have signed an online petition to "let people drink" a reddish liquid discovered in a 2,000-year-old sarcophagus unearthed in Egypt. The tongue-in-cheek petition, started late last week and entitled "let people drink ...
World / Offbeat Jul 22, 2018
Leaving on a jet-suit? London store offers chance to hover like 'Iron Man'
Ever fancied a dab at being "Iron Man"? Now you can. A jet-suit created by a British former commodities trader has gone on sale in a London department store with a cool price tag of £340,000 ($446,522). Made up of five miniature jet engines mounted ...
World / Offbeat Jul 11, 2018
Zsa Zsa's 15 minutes in the limelight are over: The copiously drooling English bulldog — named the World's Ugliest Dog just weeks ago — has died. The 9-year-old canine died in her sleep Tuesday morning, owner Megan Brainard of Anoka, Minnesota told U.S. media. "I'm in ...
Asia Pacific / Offbeat Apr 29, 2018
The pungent smell of the rotten durian fruit at an Australian university library has been mistaken for a gas leak, prompting an evacuation of the building. Specialist crews wearing masks searched the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology university campus library Saturday, but all they found ...
National / Social Issues Apr 7, 2018
Tokyo elementary school welcomes students in controversial Armani uniforms
A public elementary school in Tokyo's upscale Ginza district has welcomed new students amid a lingering controversy over its pricey Armani uniforms. On Friday, all 56 first-graders — except one absentee — wore the Armani outfits proposed by Taimei Elementary School. While not formally required, the ...