A 10-year-old German girl who gave herself a radical haircut and then feared her parents' reaction claimed she was kidnapped by a man armed with a pair of scissors, authorities said Wednesday.

Police spokesman Thorsten Schiewe in the northern city of Hanover said the girl ran to a neighbor Tuesday with the story that someone had broken into her house, threatened her with scissors and held her captive for a short time.

A homeless man jumped the White House fence Tuesday triggering a security alert, but was quickly stopped by the U.S. Secret Service and arrested.

Two agents swiftly approached the man with their rifles drawn at him as he lay face down on the North Lawn of the White House.

Serbian teen tennis player Bojana Jovanovski had two days to forget after she went to Carlsbad, New Mexico instead of Carlsbad, California for the WTA San Diego Open.

The 19-year-old Serb, ranked 53rd in the world, almost missed her Monday first-round match after she was somehow presented with an erroneous ticket to a tiny desert town nearly 1,500 kilometers short of her intended destination.

For two years, a 36-year-old bear who performed during the 1980 Moscow Olympics has been kept with other retired circus animals in a rusty old bus parked on the outskirts of St. Petersburg.

Animal rights activists say they receive only minimal care in their cramped and stinking cages.

Some artists got naked on Wall Street during a performance art piece — and then they got arrested.

The two men and a woman were arrested on charges of disorderly conduct Monday morning outside the New York Stock Exchange.

ArabNet, the hub for Arab digital professionals and entrepreneurs to connect and learn,marked the launching of an innovative Arabic new media campaign highlighting past and present Arab geniuses on Monday.

"Modeled on the traditional Fawazir Ramdan, but with a modern twist, the campaign is designed as a series of episodes published exclusively online and in Arabic" ArabNet said in a press release.

Pittsburgh police say a man tried to carjack a plainclothes officer near filming for the latest Batman movie — and allegedly told him it was part of the script.

Detective Robert DiGiacomo was in an unmarked vehicle around 7:15 p.m. Saturday, looking for a suspect in an assault. That's when police say a man opened the car door, sat down and told the officer to get out.

From Syria to Libya and Egypt, the uprisings and unrest gripping the Arab world have cast a pall on the start of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month when the traditional focus on piety will likely be eclipsed by more unrest.

Food prices — part of the economic hardships that catalyzed the ouster of the Egyptian and Tunisian leaders — are still climbing. And protesters have shown little patience for conciliatory gestures by governments after decades of empty promises.

Attracting dust but few prospective buyers in a car lot on the outskirts of Kabul, three saloon cars, a crane and a dump truck sit abandoned due a numerical curse that has swept Afghanistan.

A bizarre phenomenon that equates the number 39 with prostitution has become a headache for the car industry, as buyers avoid car license plates containing the dreaded number for fear of being ostracized.

Cities and organizations in the U.S. state of Maryland have found an original and ecologically sound method to cut the weeds from their parks and gardens: Bring in the goats.

Brian Knox, owner of Eco-Goats, a business based in Davidsonville, Maryland, said the hungry animals graze on dense vegetation and munch unwanted weeds and invasive plants while also leaving fertilizer behind for the grasses that people want.