The demand of dozens of citizens has been denied in the Ecuadorean city of Guayaquil: There will be no jackass running for the legislature.

At least 40 people paraded their candidate through the city's streets to the electoral council offices. Mr. Burro even wore a tie. But officials refused to even let them in the door on Thursday, even though backers had dummied up a mock voter registration card showing the candidate's photo superimposed on a man wearing a business suit.

A football fan who had a Paris Saint-Germain replica shirt printed with the name of Osama Bin Laden on the back found himself in court Friday, charged with defending terrorism.

The 21-year-old, who bought the shirt in the club store on the Champs-Elysees, was arrested after a shop assistant reported him saying he wanted to honor the memory of the late al-Qaida leader.

Tired of bird droppings on the city's most famous monuments, local authorities in Rome are resorting to unusual measures to try and scare off a million starlings that migrate to the Eternal City every year.

Armed with loudspeakers and light projectors, workers dressed in white overalls and masks have been seen walking around at sunset along the tree-lined embankments of the Tiber River where starlings tend to congregate.

France on Friday dashed the hopes of those who had planned to take refuge in one of the few places on Earth some believe will be spared when the world ends on December 21.

Local officials banned access to the Pic de Bugarach, a mountain in the southwest where rumor has it the hilltop will open on the last day and aliens will emerge with spaceships to save nearby humans.

Forget texting while driving. German police say they nabbed a driver who had wired his Ford station wagon with an entire mobile office.

Saarland state police said Friday the 35-year-old man was pulled over for doing 130 kph (80 mph) in a 100 kph zone while passing a truck Monday.

Celebrity TV chef Guy Fieri was chopping mad Thursday after being sliced and diced in a scathing New York Times review of his soggy fries and "nuclear waste" drinks.

The review was served up Tuesday but the fallout continued to brew Thursday with the dissed chef firing back in an interview on ABC television that the Times had "another agenda."

Health officials on Friday told Thai men size does not matter after a patient had to have his genitals removed following a botched attempt to enlarge his penis by injecting olive oil into the organ.

The risky and unproven method using the oil -- although bees wax, silicone and even paraffin are often also used -- is common in Thailand with one Bangkok hospital receiving about 40 patients a month concerned about side-effects.

Thai police said Friday they had discovered thousands of items of stolen women's underwear at the home of a robbery suspect, the second time the man has been found hoarding undergarments this year.

Danai Raiwech, 48, was arrested at his home in a Bangkok suburb on Thursday after police searched his property in connection with a $325,000 heist at a jewelers.

Fantastic fibbers are gathering at a remote pub in northwestern England to vie for the title of world's biggest liar.

The annual competition is held at the Bridge Inn in the Lake District hamlet of Santon Bridge. Contestants have five minutes to impress the judges with a whopping but convincing lie.

Once referred to as the "people's republic of Santa Monica" because of its socially conscious government, the Los Angeles coastal suburb now wants to find out whether its citizens are feeling groovy.

The Los Angeles Times (http://lat.ms/TZMI49) says Santa Monica officials are seeking a grant to create the nation's first municipal well-being index.