Horologists around the world on Saturday will carry out one of the weirdest operations of their profession: they will hold back time.

The last minute of June 30, 2012 is destined to be 61 seconds long, for timekeepers are to add a "leap second" to compensate for the wibbly-wobbly movements of our world.

Nearly two in three Americans think President Barack Obama is better suited than Republican rival Mitt Romney to deal with an alien invasion, according to a survey released Wednesday.

National Geographic Channel contacted 1,114 adults across the United States last month for its fanciful opinion poll ahead of its new cable television documentary series "Chasing UFOs."

Perhaps they were trying to keep a horde of vampires at bay.

Austrian police said Wednesday they had stopped five Romanians on the motorway with overflowing lorries transporting a whopping 9.5 tons... of fresh garlic.

France Wednesday denied reports that President Francois Hollande had been left without armed protection at last week's Rio Earth summit after his protection detail forgot their firearms in Paris.

"All the officers who accompanied the president were armed and not bare-handed, contrary to what has been alleged," government spokeswoman Najat Vallaud-Belkacem said.

Gunnar, an authentic former U.S. Navy seal whose many talents included using a screwdriver under water, has died at the age of 38, the National Zoo in Washington said Tuesday.

Born in Iceland in November 1973, gray seal Gunnar was specially trained to carry out deep-sea tasks during the Cold War, such as diving as far down as 475 feet (145 meters) to recover items from the ocean floor.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday he was "at a bit of a loss" that a street was named after him in Bethlehem, revered by Christians as the birthplace of Jesus.

Putin spoke in Jordan as he wrapped up his Middle East tour, which included a stop in Bethlehem in the West Bank and talks with Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas who ordered a street to be named after his guest.

French President Francois Hollande attended the Rio Earth summit last week with minimum protection after his bodyguards left their firearms in Paris, sources close to the case said Tuesday.

The elite GSPR unit which protects the French leader normally travels with a briefcase that contains the weapons, but on their arrival in Brazil on June 19 the bodyguards realized that the weapons had stayed behind at Hollande's office in the Elysee palace.

A subway operator in the Chinese metropolis of Shanghai has caused uproar by warning women not to wear revealing clothes to avoid being groped by the city's "perverts".

On its microblogging site, the Shanghai No.2 Subway Co posted a picture of a women in a see-through dress and warned: "If you dress like this on the subway, you will undoubtedly be harassed.

French President Francois Hollande attended the Rio Earth summit last week with minimum protection after his bodyguards left their firearms in Paris, sources close to the case said Tuesday.

The elite GSPR unit which protects the French leader normally travels with a briefcase that contains the weapons, but on their arrival in Brazil on June 19 the bodyguards realized that the weapons had stayed behind at Hollande's office in the Elysee palace.

Tokyo police are investigating whether a man who cooked his own severed genitals and served them to five paying diners committed a crime, the force said Tuesday.

Mao Sugiyama had his penis and testicles surgically removed in March and kept them frozen for two months before cooking them at a public event in May.