A simple phone call about dead sea otters washing up on the shores of Alaska after U.S. nuclear tests lead to the birth of environmental organization Greenpeace four decades ago.

Irving Stowe and his wife, Dorothy, were so outraged by the news that they launched a petition from their home in Vancouver, on the Canadian west coast, and set up a group called "Don't Make A Wave."

Some had to stand on tiptoe to peer over the podium. Others pulled at the stiff collars of their unfamiliar suits. But the children of 9/11 victims stood proud as they shared heart wrenching ordeals.

Thieves in the small Swiss town of Weiningen near Zurich stole 84 carrier pigeons worth about 12,000 francs (13,500 dollars, 10,000 euros), local police reported Sunday.

The night between Saturday and Sunday, thieves entered a garden-house breeding station overnight "and stole 84 grey, black and brown carrier pigeons," the Zurich canton police said in a press release.

A captive orangutan often spotted smoking cigarettes given to her by zoo visitors is being forced to kick the habit, a Malaysian wildlife official said Monday.

Government authorities seized the adult ape named Shirley from a state-run zoo in Malaysia's southern Johor state last week after she and several other animals there were deemed to be living in poor conditions.

Flouting the age-old parental refrain, "Don't play with your food!" comes a zany Irish production called "Cirque de Legume" which is all about playing with food. Specifically, with root vegetables.

The chewing, spewing and other abuse of leafy produce has been raised to an art form by the hilarious, deliberately awkward duo performing "Cirque de Legume," which opened Sunday night off-Broadway at 59E59 Theaters as part of the yearlong 2011 Imagine Ireland festival. It's an animal-vegetable-maniac circus, laden with slapstick and humor at the expense of a basket of vegetables.

A French diplomat working for the European Union in Papua New Guinea was airlifted to Australia on Monday after a shark attacked him when he was kite-surfing near Port Moresby.

Thomas Viot, 30, was bitten on the right leg by what he believed was a two-meter tiger shark on a reef at Hula, south of the PNG capital on Sunday afternoon.

Pope Benedict XVI called on political leaders to resist the temptation to hate as he marked the 10th anniversary of the September 11 attacks in Italy.

"In remembering to the Lord the victims of the attacks that took place on that day, and their families, I invite the leaders of nations and men of good will to always refuse violence as a solution to problems and to resist the temptation to hate," Benedict told crowds of faithful during a pastoral visit to the eastern port city of Ancona.

Americans are having breakfast before going to work on September 11, 2001 when terrorists calmly pick up boarding cards for flights they will hijack and smash into New York and the Pentagon.

It's just 5:45 am and hijackers Mohammed Atta and Abdulaziz al-Omari pass security at Portland airport in Maine, flying to Boston where they connect onto Los Angeles-bound American Airlines Flight 11.

A Canadian government decree that the Queen's portrait be displayed in all embassies and missions abroad triggered an angry response Friday from a former diplomat and an opposition lawmaker.

"This decision is retrograde and anachronistic," said Paul Heinbecker, Canada's erstwhile ambassador to the United Nations. "After 60 years of emancipation, this is a step back for our country," he added.

Shafique Sheikh was not a big name in the Indian film industry and few would have heard of him outside Malegaon, his home town in the western state of Maharashtra.

But with cruel irony his death at the age of 25 this week from tongue cancer -- an apparent result of a heavy chewing tobacco habit since childhood -- just a week after the premiere of his new film, has brought him posthumous fame.