The U.S. Department of Agriculture is taking a second look at a "Christmas tree tax" that's really not a tax at all, in the face of an uproar triggered by a conservative think tank.

The Heritage Foundation set tongues wagging when it said a levy of 15 cents (11 euro cents) for every fresh Christmas tree harvested in the United States or imported, amounted to a new tax by Barack Obama's administration.

All eyes will be on the Gulf's booming airlines and how deeply they dig into their wallets when the Middle East's main airshow opens in Dubai next week, though few are expecting a flood of blockbuster deals.

That's because the region's heavyweights — Emirates, Qatar Airways and Etihad Airways — already boast long lists of planes on order designed to fatten their young fleets for years to come.

A rodeo bull in the U.S. appears comfortable again after spending about 20 hours with his head stuck in a giant tire.

The bull, named Skywalker, couldn't eat or drink after he got his head lodged in a discarded truck tire, ranch owner Paige De Ponte said.

For anyone with $15 million (11 million euros) to spare, a dazzling 110-carat pear-shaped jewel known as the Sun-Drop Diamond will go to auction next week.

Said to be the largest diamond of its kind, the gem known as a 'fancy vivid yellow pear-shape' was discovered in South Africa in 2010 and wowed visitors to London's Natural History Museum where it was displayed earlier this year and also in Hong Kong.

A French police dog credited with sniffing out 1,700 drugs suspects was on Wednesday decorated with a medal for bravery and dedication at a ceremony in the southwestern city of Bordeaux.

Aldo, a Belgian Malinois sheepdog, has been behind 1,700 arrests since he started working for the Bordeaux police department in 2006 -- almost one a day -- and 475 arrests this year alone.

A number of livestock traders were robbed of their lucrative Eid-ul-Adha takings after thieves threw itching powder over them at a Mumbai market, a newspaper report said on Wednesday.

The Daily News and Analysis said that several traders selling goats and sheep at the Deonar market were targeted in the run-up to the Muslim festival on Monday, which is marked by the ritual sacrifice of animals.

In a species of hawk, males dress themselves up as females to gain a sneaky advantage in the mating game, according to an unusual study published Wednesday.

Most male marsh harriers (Circus aeruginosus) are grey, but more than a third have permanent plumage that mimics the colors of females, which are mainly brown with a white head and shoulders.

A joyrider who drove his Aston Martin nearly 300 kilometers per hour on a Belgian highway was found by police after posting a video of his high-speed adventure on YouTube, Belgian officials said Tuesday.

The images, which circulated throughout Belgian media, were filmed by a passenger who focused the camera on the speedometer that read 293 kilometers (182 miles per hour).

Arkansas mom Michelle Duggar proudly announced to the world Tuesday she's expecting -- but her 19 other children got to hear the news first.

Duggar, 45, and her husband Jim Bob, 46, have more experience than most in new arrivals, but they told NBC television they were surprised by the latest.

A smirking horned devil exists in the frescoed clouds of a Giotto work in the famed Assisi basilica, an Italian art historian said Tuesday — a tantalizing detail that apparently went unnoticed by scholars for centuries.

The discovery was reported in the online edition of this month's issue of the Franciscan religious order publication San Francesco Patrono d'Italia.