Voodoo dolls of Colombian star James Rodriguez, candles in Brazil colors and prayers to deities, Neymar and co are getting full support from the World Cup hosts' Afro-Brazilian religions.

Before every game, Helio Sillman lights four yellow, green and blue candles in the colors of the national flag and places them in a rectangular box representing a football pitch.

A seven-time champion and the two-time women's winner will defend their titles at the annual hot dog-eating contest on Coney Island.

Seventeen men and 13 women will compete Friday in front of a crowd of about 30,000 spectators and a TV audience of about one million in the Nathan's Famous Fourth of July Hot Dog Eating Contest, now in its 99th year.

On a warm summer's day in the tranquil Pennsylvania countryside, elves battle crusaders, hobbits clash with knights, and archers target samurai swordsmen. 

And everyone lives to tell the tale.

A heavy metal fan was found to have bleeding in the brain a month after a night of headbanging at a Motorhead concert, doctors in Germany reported on Friday.

Headbanging -- the up-and-down movement of the head in time to a heavy beat -- is usually seen as a harmless bit of fun.

For those who may in fact fancy a nibble from disgraced Uruguay striker Luis Suarez, an online Swedish sex shop has come up with just the thing.

The online store Oliver & Eva on Wednesday unveiled a "Suarez nipple clamp" in the form of the footballer's head, teeth bared, for 33 euros ($45).

A seven-year-old Brazilian boy has been named after so many French football stars that he struggles to pronounce his own name.

He is called Zinedine Yazid Zidane Thierry Henry Barthez Eric Felipe Silva Santos.

Hundreds of cuddly mascots were facing the chop Thursday after Japan's finance ministry ordered local authorities nationwide to cut back in their use, saying many of them are a waste of public money.

The clampdown comes months after officials in one region ordered a cull of its life-size "yuru-kyara" ("laid-back characters"), after finding that the public has no idea who -- or what -- many of them are.

Colombia will ban the sale of flour and shaving foam in Bogota for Friday's quarter-final World clash with hosts Brazil, with thousands expected on the streets and passions running high in the football-mad country.

Colombians often celebrate by dousing people in shaving cream or making flour "bombs," but police, who will be out in force for the game on the streets of the capital, want to stamp out the practice because it can lead to fights. Alcohol sales will also be banned on Friday.

A man is accused of animal cruelty after hundreds of domesticated rats have been found dead or dying in a north-central Arizona travel trailer.

Yavapai County Sheriff's officials say 28-year-old Jeffrey Wendorff was arrested Monday on suspicion of cruel mistreatment of animals and neglect/abandonment of animals.

A Kansas couple who had just renewed their wedding vows got a rude shock when a man tried to steal wedding gifts from the reception and the groom ran after him shouting "Stop! Thief! Stop!"

Jared Lightle, of Galena, Kansas, was outside during the reception Saturday after renewing his vows with his wife, Stephanie, at the Scottish Rite Temple in downtown Joplin when his mother yelled that someone had taken cards from a gift table in the lobby.