A U.S. promoter hopes to break a world record by parading at least 700 costumed dogs, mostly Chihuahuas, down a city street on the Cinco de Mayo holiday.

Mark Valentine says the Kansas City parade will introduce Chihuahuas to their cultural heritage while helping a no-kill shelter.

Ford Motor Co. plans to build a $760 million auto assembly plant in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou, part of a doubling of its production capacity in the world's biggest vehicle market as it strives to catch up with rivals.

The investment in the factory with joint-venture partner Changan Ford Mazda Automobile Limited will add annual capacity of 250,000 vehicles when it begins operations in early 2015, the company said Thursday.

Seismologists say last week's powerful earthquake off western Indonesia increased pressure on the source of the devastating 2004 tsunami: a fault that could unleash another monster wave sometime in the next few decades.

"The spring was pushed a little bit tighter," said Kerry Sieh, director of the Earth Observatory of Singapore.

Kathy Griffin jokes she's been banned from most talk shows for poking fun at the rich and famous. But that shouldn't be a problem now that she's got her own weekly talk show on Bravo.

Griffin said in a recent interview that the show will not be celebrity oriented and she will poke fun at people in all walks of life, including herself.

U.S. authorities ended a more than 70-year-old art drama Wednesday when they returned a 16th century masterpiece to the heirs of a Jewish man after they sought for years to reclaim the painting wrested away during World War II.

A grandson of Federico Gentili di Giuseppe listened in via teleconference from London as American authorities signed the documents transferring over the Baroque painting titled "Christ Carrying the Cross Dragged by a Rogue."

Dick Clark stood as an avatar of rock 'n' roll virtually from its birth and, until his death Wednesday at age 82, as a cultural touchstone for several generations of Americans.

His identity as "the world's oldest teenager" became strained in recent years, as time and infirmity caught up with his enduring boyishness. But he owned New Year's Eve after four decades hosting his annual telecast on ABC from Times Square. And as a producer and entertainment entrepreneur, he was a media titan: his Dick Clark Productions supplied movies, game shows, beauty contests and more to TV.

The objects displayed in the U.S. state of Michigan's newest museum range from the ordinary, such as simple ashtrays and fishing lures, to the grotesque — a full-size replica of a lynching tree. But all are united by a common theme: They are steeped in racism so intense that it makes visitors cringe.

That's the idea behind the Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia, which says it has amassed the nation's largest public collection of artifacts spanning the segregation era, from Reconstruction until the civil rights movement, and beyond.

Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo's record goal-scoring form looms as the decisive factor when Spanish league leader Real Madrid plays at Barcelona on Saturday in a crucial "clasico" that will effectively determine the destiny of the title.

Madrid has seen a 10 point lead over three-time defending champion Barcelona whittled down to just four points over the past month, and a loss at the Camp Nou would see the advantage sliced to just one point with four more games remaining.

A University of California San Diego scientist was able to use his math and physics knowledge to argue his way out of a $400 traffic ticket.

In a paper titled "The Proof of Innocence," senior research scientist Dmitri Krioukov successfully appealed his failure-to-stop ticket by explaining that he may have appeared to an officer that he didn't stop when he actually did, according to the Los Angeles Times .

A Hizbullah commander accused of targeting U.S. soldiers in Iraq may be released from prison within weeks, his lawyer predicted, claiming that flimsy American evidence has kept his client behind bars for nearly five years.

The case has been a thorn in diplomatic relations between Baghdad and Washington since the American military pullout last December.