Japan's foreign ministry has told its embassies abroad to reduce huge wine stockpiles after finding excessive build-ups, including almost 7,900 bottles at one European mission alone.

"I was very surprised to see the report by the audit board," Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara, who took office a month ago, told a parliamentary committee after a recent audit of embassies' booze stocks.

A Nepalese fruit seller's son with the body of a toddler turned 18 on Thursday and was officially declared the world's shortest man by Guinness record officials.

Khagendra Thapa Magar measured in at 67 centimeters, displacing the former record holder, Edward Nino Hernandez of Colombia, who measures 70 centimeters.

A rock band will have to face the music after blocking a Los Angeles freeway and performing atop its trailer.

California Highway Patrol spokesman Rick Quintero said a big box van decorated with Imperial Stars' logo stopped on the southbound U.S. 101 near Sunset Boulevard at about 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, blocking four of the five lanes.

Having breezed through several world records in the culinary field Lebanon has now gone for the big one -- the world's largest national flag, and so huge it needed an airfield.

The Lebanese military on Sunday released a picture taken from the air of the massive flag, stitched in Kuwait, assembled in Lebanon and covering 65,000 square meters (645,600 square feet) "unfurled."

Watch out, Sarah Palin. There's a new conservative in town, and he's (nearly) naked and gunning for the White House.

The Naked Cowboy, a strapping guitar player and Times Square fixture known for busking in his briefs, 10-gallon hat and boots, says he will be donning a normal outfit on his next adventure: a run for the White House.

The parasailing donkey will never fly again and can look ahead to a life of luxury.

The female donkey Anapka arrived in Moscow on Wednesday after her brays of terror over a southern Russian beach last month prompted a British newspaper to step in and buy her.

A man donning a Darth Vader mask at a New York bank has entered the dark side.

Police say the man entered a Chase bank branch on Long Island on Thursday, displayed a gun and demanded money. A surveillance camera caught the "Star Wars" character wearing a blue cape and camouflage pants.