Cleveland

Park system celebrates 150 years with pink flamingo record

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Parks officials in Buffalo, New York, are tickled pink over claiming a new world record for having the longest line of garden flamingos .

Lone woman digs for family lost under Guatemalan volcanic rubble

By Carlos Jasso and Sofia Menchu SAN MIGUEL LOS LOTES, Guatemala (Reuters) - Eleven days after the Fuego volcano rained down on the Guatemalan village of San Miguel Los Lotes, a backhoe ripped the roof off one of the homes buried by ash, revealing a corpse in the still-hot dust. "It's my sister Lola," said Eufemia Garcia Ixpata, a 48-year-old fruit vendor who lost dozens of family members in the eruption. Garcia ran to find a sheet of paper and a marker to prepare a name tag before the body was taken to a grade school that was being used as a makeshift morgue.

Man finds rattlesnake under hood while trying to start car

HANCOCK, N.Y. (AP) — An upstate New York man trying to jump-start his car was greeted by an unusual sound coming from his engine — the rattle of a venomous timber rattlesnake.

In India, rats have a $19,000 meal

GUWAHATI, India (AP) — It was a cash machine heist with a difference: The attackers were hungry rodents.

400 flown from James Bond mountain after Swiss cable car breaks down

Helicopters airlifted about 400 people off the Swiss mountain featured in the 1969 James Bond movie "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" on Thursday after a cable car broke down, stranding them briefly at about 10,000 feet above sea level. The tourists were atop the 2,970-meter (9,744 ft) Piz Gloria mountain when a technical defect disabled a gondola further down the mountain, the Schilthorn AG company, which operates the cable car system, said in a statement. The guests were then taken in a separate cable car to a nearby ridge, where four helicopters were enlisted to ferry them the rest of the way down the mountain to the ski station of Muerren.

Phillies fan injured by flying hot dog launched by Phanatic

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — It was a flying frankfurter and not a foul ball that left a baseball fan with a black eye in Philadelphia.

Beer may lack fizz in Europe amid carbon dioxide shortage

LONDON (AP) — No beer at this time of year?

Blood, sweat and accessories: artist recycles bodily fluids for fashion

By Stuart McDill LONDON (Reuters) - Struggling to make your fashion more personal? A London fashion student can help you decorate your attire with crystal accessories formed from your bodily excretions. Royal College of Art graduate Alice Potts showcased her quirky design methods with a pair of ballet shoes adorned with crystals formed from sweat and a fake fur featuring urine-crystals at the RCA's annual fashion show.

Tests confirm mystery animal shot in Montana was a wolf

HELENA, Mont. (AP) — The mystery is over: Wildlife officials have confirmed that an unusual-looking animal shot in central Montana was a gray wolf.

Vows in the air: German couple married in tightrope wedding

BERLIN (AP) — A couple in eastern Germany have gotten married in a swing dangling from a motorcycle atop a tightrope, 14 meters (46 feet) above the ground.

Australian supermarket giant says 'yes' to mass nude photograph

More than 11,000 Australians who rushed for the chance to strip for American photographer Spencer Tunick will soon wear only smiles after a national supermarket chain changed its mind about allowing the shoot to go ahead on a suburban rooftop carpark. "We're over the moon," John Lotton, director of the Provocare Festival of the Arts, told Reuters on Saturday. After festival organizers agreed to move the event from busy weekend trading hours to a quiet Monday morning, Woolworths shed its inhibitions to allow the event to go ahead on July 9.

Research on dogs might shed light on human responses to food: study

Researchers in Hungary who found that normal and overweight dogs behaved differently in tasks involving food say the dogs’ responses were similar to what might be expected in normal and overweight humans. The study suggested dogs could be used as models for future research into the causes and psychological impacts of human obesity, the authors of the paper from Budapest's ELTE University said. Researchers put two bowls - one of them holding a good meal, the other empty or containing less attractive food - in front of a series of dogs.

Montana man rescues tired fawn from bed of sewer sludge

FORT BENTON, Mont. (AP) — A north-central Montana man rescued a tired fawn from a bed of drying sewer sludge while others helped reunite the baby deer with its mother nearby.

Airplane-towed banner falls in NJ, smashes car window

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — An airplane-towed banner broke loose and came down near New Jersey's statehouse, fluttering to the ground and shattering the rear windshield of a parked car.

Minnesota online sensation raccoon captured atop skyscraper

By Brendan O'Brien (Reuters) - A raccoon that climbed to the top of a 25-story St. Paul, Minnesota, skyscraper early on Wednesday was captured after becoming a star on the web, where it won the hearts of followers across the United States and around the globe. "After a delicious meal of soft cat food, #mprraccoon has been caught and will be picked up by Wildlife Management.

Big hurdles for bold push to split California into 3 states

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Californians will face a choice this November of whether to divide the nation's most populous state into three, an effort that would radically shake up not only the West Coast, but the entire nation.

St. Paul raccoon set free after scaling 25-story tower

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A raccoon that became an internet sensation by scaling a 25-story office tower in downtown St. Paul was safely trapped Wednesday and released back into the wild.