Technically they're "chocolate sandwich cookies," a baked concoction of sugar, vitamin-enriched flour, canola oil, high-fructose corn syrup and, at the bottom of the list of ingredients, chocolate.

But the Oreo cookie -- first baked in New York city 100 years ago Tuesday -- is much more than that. It's an American icon, the best-selling cookie in the nation, with plenty of fans around the world to boot.

A Japanese zoo has turned to rhythmical banging on traditional drums in a bid to encourage some enthusiasm for sex among lust-lacking alligators.

Zookeepers said Wednesday they hoped the low booming sound produced by large Japanese "taiko" drums would spur lethargic Chinese alligators to begin mating because of its similarity to the animals' natural pre-coital cry.

A man used an eye-catching way to attract people on Wednesday after he began to strip in Beirut’s Ain el-Mraisseh seafront in broad daylight.

Witnesses told Naharnet that the bare-chested man brought his shorts down on several occasions and showed his buttocks by forming a G-string with his underwear.

A Frenchman goes on trial Thursday for cutting his girlfriend's lover's penis off and flushing it down the toilet.

Blaise Fragione, 38, admits that in October 2008 he knocked out the victim, named only as "F.", with a blow to the head, severed most of his penis with a razor knife and threw it in the toilet.

Police in Nepal have launched a crackdown on men throwing water balloons at women during the Hindu festival of Holi, warning the pranksters they face jail.

Singapore's decision to grant foreign maids a weekly day off was welcomed Tuesday by social workers and rights groups, but some employers grumbled and critics said the move falls short of international labor standards.

While Singapore is proud of its squeaky-clean image and widely admired for its economic development, it has been regularly criticized for its treatment of foreign workers.

Call it McWashington.

A Nebraska woman has sold a three-year-old McDonald's Chicken McNugget that resembles President George Washington for $8,100 on eBay.

Fidel Castro, Winston Churchill, Jack Nicholson, Groucho Marx and Arnold Schwarzenegger -- meet the cast of notables Janio Nunez has sculpted entirely out of Cuba's famed tobacco.

The Cuban sculptor uses the same sticky leaves and time-honored rolling techniques that go into the famed cigars enjoyed by his subjects, and which was celebrated at last week's 14th annual Havana Festival.

An Egyptian Islamist MP was forced to resign from parliament and from his party after claiming that he was injured in a carjacking, when he had in fact had a nose job, his party said on Monday.

A bruised and bandaged Anwar al-Bilkimy had appeared on television last week saying he was the victim of a carjacking and spoke of how gunmen beat him and stole 100,000 Egyptian pounds ($16,500).

High emotion, cold calculation or just brought on by the wind? The moment when Vladimir Putin shed tears became such a talking point in Russia Monday that it even led to naming a protest.

Opposition leader Alexei Navalny coined the slogan "Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears" for the mass anti-Putin rally set for Monday evening, using the title of an Oscar-winning Soviet melodrama.