U.S. dollar store chain 99 Cents Only wants to open a branch on the ultra-chic Beverly Hills shopping street Rodeo Drive -- even if high-end retailers there say it won't be able to afford the rent.

There is little sign of the global economic downturn on the exclusive street, which boasts luxury boutiques ranging from jewelers Bulgari and Cartier to designer clothing stores such as Giorgio Armani and Gucci, and perfumiers like Chanel.

As Paul Ryan got pumped up about Thursday's vice presidential debate, observers were distracted by his pumped-up biceps in photographs of the Republican running mate published hours before he was to square off against Joe Biden.

Time magazine posted a series of pictures of the famously fit Ryan, wearing gym clothes and a backward red baseball cap and curling a dumbbell.

A furious client killed a pizza delivery man in Mexico for being 40 minutes late, authorities said Thursday.

The victim's body, eyes blindfolded and hands bound, was found Monday in the town of Tetla, some 140 kilometers (90 miles) east of Mexico City, said the public prosecutor's office in Tlaxcala state.

A Philippine motorist who tried to overtake President Benigno Aquino's convoy was arrested early Thursday, officials said, in the second such incident in traffic-choked Manila in less than three months.

Pharmaceuticals salesman Mark Hanopol, 24, failed an alcohol breath test after his car was pulled over by police for a "reckless" driving maneuver as the presidential convoy passed, Aquino's spokesman Edwin Lacierda said.

A "grotesque" plant that mimics the smell of rotting flesh to attract flies has gone on display in Wellington's Botanic Gardens.

The dracunculus vulgaris, commonly known as the voodoo lily, began flowering on Thursday and will emit a strong stench of putrid meat for about a week, botanic gardens general manager David Sole said.

A man tried to rob a bank of $1 because he hoped to be sent to a federal prison nearby, police said.

Jeffrey McMullen, a 50-year-old regular customer of an AmeriServ bank in the western Pennsylvania town of Northern Cambria, handed notes to two tellers Friday demanding a dollar, according to a police complaint reported by The Tribune-Democrat of Johnstown (http://bit.ly/Qcdx17).

Sticks, stones and firebombs are routine at Greek anti-austerity protests but the streakers that turned up at this week's demonstrations against German Chancellor Angela Merkel's visit are a first.

Two men, a 56-year-old American and a younger man believed to be British, startled onlookers on Tuesday by running naked in central Athens where riot police had earlier clashed with masked protesters throwing bottles and broken masonry.

A South Korean was jailed for life Thursday for the murder of his girlfriend, who police originally believed had accidentally choked to death while eating a live octopus.

A district court in Incheon, west of Seoul, convicted the defendant, identified only as Kim, and sentenced him to life imprisonment for what the judge described as a "heinous crime".

Pizza Hut is promising "free pizza for life" to whoever dares to ask Barack Obama and Mitt Romney the most burning question of the day: sausage or pepperoni?

The fast food chain is angling to get some publicity out of a town hall debate on October 16 between the Democratic president and his Republican challenger at a liberal arts college outside New York.

French President Francois Hollande potentially won the hearts of thousands of future voters on Tuesday by announcing he wants to abolish homework.

Unveiling a new education program, Hollande said school work should "be done at school, rather than at home", to foster educational equality because some students do not have support at home.