A co-pilot who sent his Japanese passenger jet into a nosedive when he mistook a rudder control for a door lock did not notice anything was wrong for 17 seconds, a government report said Friday.

The All Nippon Airways (ANA) flight, with 117 passengers and crew on board, dived 1,900 meters (about 6,300 feet) in 30 seconds from a height of about 41,000 feet.

Maple syrup producers in Quebec found themselves in a sticky situation after thieves made off with millions of dollars worth of the breakfast sweetener that had been stored in a warehouse.

Empty barrels were found at a warehouse that had held some 10 million pounds of syrup worth an estimated $30 million, indicating that the thieves had emptied syrup into other containers to sell on the black market.

A former president of IBM Japan has been questioned by police after allegedly filming up the skirt of an unsuspecting woman in a train station, local media reported Thursday.

Takuma Otoshi, 63, used his iPod to take the illicit footage as the woman rode an escalator at a busy Tokyo station, Japan's biggest-selling Yomiuri Shimbun and the Mainichi Shimbun reported.

U.S. President Barack Obama said Wednesday he would soon unveil the coveted secret recipe for the White House's storied microbrewed beer after an Internet campaign.

An internet user asked Obama, who participated in a question and answer session over social media network Reddit, for the recipe.

Germany's men's Olympic hockey team is facing a bill for damages of 500,000 euros (U.S. $626,516) after the party they held on a cruise ship to celebrate their London 2012 gold medals got out of hand.

After their 2-1 win over Holland saw them retain the Olympic title they won in Bejing, the Germans let off steam on the MS Deutschland in London's West India Quay on August 11 in a party organized by a Berlin-based events firm.

A new species of fish with a penis on its head has been identified in the Mekong Delta in Vietnam, researchers said on Wednesday.

Phallostethus cuulong is the newest member of the Phallostethidae family -- small fish found in Southeast Asian waters that are distinguished primarily by the positioning of the male sexual organ.

Young Chinese women in swishy dresses and strappy sandals sit in a row clutching forms that list their weight and measurements as they wait for an interview with the "appearance consultant".

Dressed as if for a beauty contest, they are among more than 1,000 bidding to make it to the next stage of this bizarre competition -- the chance to join an exclusive group of 50 vying for marriage to a multimillionaire.

Tens of thousands of revelers hurled 120 tons of squashed tomatoes at each other Wednesday, drenching the streets in red in a gigantic Spanish food fight known as the Tomatina.

A sea of more than 40,000 alcohol-soaked men and women packed into the Plaza Mayor square of Bunol, eastern Spain, many with their shirts off and wearing swimming goggles to keep out the stinging juice.

Republican presidential challenger Mitt Romney took to the stage Tuesday and kissed wife Ann after she delivered a well-pitched convention speech that aimed to humanize her more awkward husband.

The moment was reminiscent of Al Gore's similar move after wife Tipper's convention speech in 2000 and was part of a carefully choreographed attempt to reintroduce Romney at this year's jamboree as a family guy with a heart.

Japan's best-known toilet maker on Wednesday unveiled a "poop-powered" motorcycle that can travel as far as 300 kilometers (180 miles) on a tank filled with animal waste.

Billed as the world's first waste-powered vehicle, the three-wheeler has a toilet in place of a regular seat and huge paper roll at the back.