AP - Joey Chestnut chomped down a record 68 hot dogs, capturing his third straight July Fourth hot-dog eating contest at Coney Island, an annual showcase for flamboyant hot dogging contestants eager to show they really are what they eat.
AP - New Zealand's national airline has adopted a cheeky way to encourage passengers to watch its in-flight safety video: The cabin crew's uniforms are nothing but body paint.
AP - A New York Police Department rookie just couldn't wait to get started.
"Great Train Robber" is refused parole (Reuters)
Reuters - "Great Train Robber" Ronnie Biggs lost his long-running bid for early jail release on Wednesday after the British government said he should not be allowed out on parole because he was "wholly unrepentant."
Reuters - Independence day fireworks sent terrified Congolese sprinting for cover on Tuesday in fear that war had broken out again in their eastern city.
Reuters - Russia closed down its casinos overnight as gambling was banned nationwide, a move the industry says could throw a third of a million people out of work.
Reuters - Spanish police have arrested a man whom they suspect hired a contract killer to murder his boss in a desperate bid to avoid being laid off, newspaper El Pais reported on Tuesday.
Reuters - A Sri Lankan court threatened a mosquito repellent factory manager with six months in jail for failing to destroy mosquito breeding areas on company premises to stop the spread of dengue fever, an official said Tuesday.
Mung bean mystery stumps British military (Reuters)
Reuters - The British military is mystified after what was first announced as a major haul of opium poppy seeds amounted to nothing more than a hill of beans.
Spain police foil radio control zeppelin jailbreak (Reuters)
Reuters - Spanish police said on Friday they had foiled an Italian drug trafficker's plan to break out of jail in the Canary Islands using climbing equipment and a four-metre-long zeppelin.
Housewife first up for 100-day "live sculpture" (Reuters)
Reuters - A housewife from Sleaford in Lincolnshire will be the first of thousands of people to stand for one hour on top of a plinth in London's Trafalgar Square as part of a 100-day "live sculpture" exercise.
Plenty of gut, little glory for stringers (Reuters)
Reuters - After supervising around 3,000 re-strings during the Wimbledon fortnight one might think Roger Dalton could put his feet up with a bowl of strawberries on Sunday and watch the men's singles final in peace.
Illinois cabbie uses deodorant to disarm attacker (AP)
AP - Police in suburban Chicago say a taxi driver who didn't have Mace handy when he was attacked by a knife-wielding passenger instead disarmed the man with a can of aerosol deodorant.
EU court okays Dutch, Italy to sell "Bavaria" beer (Reuters)
Reuters - Europe's highest court on Thursday upheld the right of Dutch and Italian brewers to sell their 'Bavaria' beer in Italy, rejecting a bid by a company making a rival beer with the equivalent name in German to stop them.
Calif. students get X-rated version of class DVD (AP)
AP - A Northern California elementary school teacher sent her students home for the summer with a video of class memories, only the DVD included six seconds of her having sex on a couch.
Police: Conn. teens mishear sex screams, beat man (AP)
AP - A 16-year-old girl thought she heard her mother being assaulted by her boyfriend and rounded up some friends who beat him up, only to learn later that the couple actually were having sex, the woman and police said. The girl misinterpreted the woman's amorous screams, and she and four other teens went to the woman's bedroom in the Torrington home on June 6, police Lt. Bruce Whiteley said Thursday.
