A joke by the satirical newspaper The Onion appears to have gotten lost in translation.

An Iranian news agency picked up — as fact — a story from the paper about a supposed survey showing an overwhelming majority of rural white Americans would rather vote for Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad than President Barack Obama. But it was made up, like everything in the just-for-laughs newspaper, which is headquartered in Chicago.

An attorney said Friday he believes a drug-induced psychosis was responsible for an outburst by an actor that police say ended in the slaying of his landlady before the former "Sons of Anarchy" cast member plunged to his death.

Johnny Lewis, 28, had been arrested three times during the past year and officials were concerned about his mental health and the danger he posed to others. His lawyer Jonathan Mandel, who represented Lewis in the criminal cases, said drugs may have been a factor in the actor's final hours.

The Saudi Arabian deputy foreign minister said Friday that Security Council inaction on the Syrian civil war gave the Bashar Assad regime "a green light" to attack his own people.

Abdulaziz bin Abdullah told the U.N. General Assembly on Friday that the Assad regime was "in a race against time to accomplish its objectives using the most advanced means of killing and destruction."

Arnold Schwarzenegger says his wife, Maria Shriver, was told to "snap out of it" by her mother for her attempts to persuade him against running for California governor in 2003, a conversation that ultimately opened the door to his successful candidacy.

Eunice Shriver told her daughter that her husband would be "angry for the rest of his life" if she stopped his ambitions, Schwarzenegger writes in his new autobiography, "Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story."

German health authorities said at least 4,000 children have fallen ill with vomiting and diarrhea after eating food from school canteens and daycare centers.

The Robert Koch-Institut stated it was alerted to a sudden surge in gastroenteritis cases that began late Tuesday in Berlin and surrounding regions.

The countdown is on for skydiver Felix Baumgartner.

In just two weeks, Baumgartner will attempt to go supersonic when he jumps from a record altitude of 23 miles over New Mexico. Project managers announced Tuesday the feat will take place Oct. 8.

Australian officials, under pressure to protect beach-goers after a string of deadly shark attacks, have approved a plan to kill sharks that venture too close to people in the water.

The plan, which was announced by Western Australia state Premier Colin Barnett on Thursday, has infuriated conservationists and marks a sharp reversal of the current policy that permits the killing of sharks only after they have attacked.

Spain is set to reveal how much trouble its banking system is in when it releases the results of audits of 14 lenders.

The results will also help the country decide how much money it will tap from a €100 billion ($128 billion) loan facility to prop up the country's financial sector.

One of the world's largest cruise ships, its foreign passengers primed for onshore spending, was supposed to dock in Egypt this month. The port call, however, was scrapped because of security concerns surrounding Mideast protests against a film made in the U.S. that denounces Islam's holiest figure.

Once again, Egyptian tourism, an engine of the national economy and a flagship of the regional industry, has taken a hit. It was another setback for a business that had plummeted in parts of the Middle East and North Africa last year during the uprisings known as the Arab Spring, then moved toward recovery this year.

Lewis Hamilton is moving to Mercedes, replacing seven-time Formula One champion replacing Michael Schumacher in a major shakeup that also sees Sergio Perez going to McLaren.

Hamilton has been at McLaren throughout his F1 career but the British team had been unwilling to match a lucrative offer from Mercedes, where he will team up with Nico Rosberg next season on a three-year contract.