A candidate running for the Amazonia state assembly in northern Brazil under the moniker Osama Bin Laden was detained during Sunday's vote for illegal campaigning outside the local polls, electoral officials said.

“Bin Laden”, real name Manoel Nunes de Assis, was standing for the tiny centrist National Labor Party (PTN).

Zookeepers in Japan have abandoned a years-long attempt to have two spotted hyenas mate and reproduce as both turned out to be male.

The Maruyama Zoo in Sapporo, northern Japan, said in a statement this week that it was gifted the animals as a "male and female couple" in October 2010 from a zoo in the South Korean twin city of Daejon.

Deputies have arrested four young men — one adult and three juveniles — suspected of breaking into a California chicken ranch and killing more than 900 birds with a golf club.

Fresno County sheriff's officials acting on several tips Wednesday tracked down 18-year-old Gabriel Quintero of Riverdale. Also taken into custody were two 17-year-olds and a 15-year-old.

Legend has it that Celtic warriors once charged into battle naked. Things aren't that bad in the modern Irish army, but its union chief says soldiers must wage a daily battle for uniforms.

Mark Scally says the difficulty of finding clothes that fit has become so dire that, before the state funeral of a former prime minister this year, soldiers had to scramble to borrow colleagues' uniforms, switching labels and rank badges to assemble an honor guard. He says some soldiers wait more than a year to receive a properly tailored "No. 1" uniform for ceremonial duties.

From afar, they look like ants crawling up a tower into the sky.

Dozens of members of the Czech Union of Chimney Climbers scaled the 60-meter- (200-foot-) tall chimney of a former textile factory one recent Saturday — a hobby they do for thrills and incomparable views.

Japan's upper house of parliament, often called the chamber of wisdom, has been rocked by a dress code row after a minister appeared sporting a red scarf.

Buckingham Palace has revealed a sticky reality -- Queen Elizabeth II is looking for a cleaner who can oversee the removal of chewing gum left by visitors to a royal residence.

Among the duties for the job at Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh is: "To arrange for the removal of chewing gum from the Historic and State Apartments by the porters", the palace said on its website.

Hong Kong's pro-democracy protesters are getting creative after four days out on the streets. Here's a round-up of Wednesday's quirkiest goings-on at the so-called "umbrella revolution":

LOVE IN THE TIME OF PROTEST

New Mexico transportation officials are hoping a "singing road" along historic Route 66 will curb speeding.

Tigress Productions is creating the road between Albuquerque and the mountain community of Tijeras for a new National Geographic Channel series dubbed "Crowd Control" that will debut in November.

A New York supermarket employee has been accused of leaving the store with $1,200 worth of meat hidden in his pants.

State police say Gregory Rodriguez, of Ossining, is charged with fourth-degree grand larceny.