Cayman Islands premier says he will not step down
The leader of the Cayman Islands government announced Thursday he will not heed calls to resign, insisting his arrest this week on suspicion of ...

German real estate booms as people seek security
Buying a home in Berlin is widely viewed as one of the safest investments a German, or any European, can make. That is why some real-estate experts ...
Spanish botched fresco artist sells work on eBay
The 80-year-old Spanish artist who became famous because of her botched restoration of a Christ fresco in a small-town church is auctioning one of her ...

Indian sitar virtuoso Ravi Shankar dies at 92
The kids at first didn't seem to know how to respond as Ravi Shankar began his four-hour set on the final afternoon of the Monterey Pop Festival, in ...
Congress ends second bag checks on some flights
Passengers arriving in the U.S. from international airports who miss connecting flights because their checked bags have to be rescreened could get ...

Cheese first made at least 7,500 years ago
Little Miss Muffet could have been separating her curds and whey 7,500 years ago, according to a new study that finds the earliest solid evidence of ...

Italy brings Michelangelo's 'David-Apollo' to US
Michelangelo's "David-Apollo" will be showcased publicly beginning Thursday at the National Gallery of Art to open a yearlong celebration of Italian ...

Italy raises money at lower rates despite upheaval
Italy successfully sold €6.5 billion ($8.45 billion) in bonds the country's first debt auction since the country's Prime Minister Mario Monti ...

Uruguay's lower house approves gay marriage law
Lawmakers in taboo-breaking Uruguay voted to legalize gay marriage late Tuesday night, approving a single law governing marriage for heterosexuals and ...

Heavy snow keeps Balkans in deep freeze
Blizzards blocked roads, stranded villages, disrupted power supplies and temporarily shut down an airport in the Balkans on Tuesday, the fourth ...

Man strips at Austrian art exhibition of nude men
An Austrian museum says a man took the concept of life imitating art to an extreme when he suddenly stripped at an exhibition of pictures and ...

Van Gogh dazzles at Netherlands' Kroeller-Mueller
With the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam closed for renovations until April, the world's second-largest collection of the tortured Dutch master's work ...

Spaniards hope for eviction reprieve amid crisis
Irene Gonzalez is desperately waiting to hear if she'll benefit from an emergency government decree that protects Spaniards such as her from being ...

Better watch out: SantaCon is coming to town
It's a meetup, it's a party, it's a spectacle: SantaCon is coming to town — in fact, to nearly 300 towns and cities around the world. Maybe you've ...
NBC Sports partners with Yahoo for content deal
NBC Sports and Yahoo are taking on the crowded sports media landscape with a partnership that fills in gaps for both companies. NBC brings video and ...

Webcam update: Lucy goes freelance to full-time
Since graduating in fashion over the summer, dissatisfied with how her university prepared her for real life, Lucy Nicholls has tried to make it in ...

Pope opens holiday season decrying selfishness
Pope Benedict XVI has kept up a holiday tradition, praying at the foot of Rome's Spanish Steps in the heart of the city's posh shopping district, and ...
NBA's Stern scolds Christie on sports bet effort
NBA Commissioner David Stern scolded Gov. Christie and said New Jersey "has no idea what it's doing" by seeking to allow sports betting in the state ...

Spain's luxury Parador hotels hit by 2-day strike
Employees at Spain's luxury Parador hotels, which are set in some of the country's most picturesque castles, monasteries and palaces, began a two-day ...
Chilean court fines motel for discrimination
A court in Chile has slapped a fine on a motel that banned entry to a gay couple in the first ruling associated with a new-antidiscrimination law.
Britain sees decline in Christmas birds like doves
Just try finding a partridge in a pear tree in Britain these days. Britain's Royal Society for Protection of Birds says the two icons of the Christmas ...
Sephora wins right to open late in Paris flagship
Visitors to Paris hoping for a late-night makeover can get the chance on the Champs-Elysees after Sephora won the right to stay open after 9 p.m.

Elephant dung coffee: An exotic brew at $50 a pop
In the lush hills of northern Thailand, a herd of 20 elephants is helping to excrete some of the world's most expensive coffee. Trumpeted as earthy ...

Mongolia finds China can be too close for comfort
After years of testy debate, Mongolia broke ground this spring for a railroad that will haul coal across the pebbled Gobi desert to China, but with ...