Odd & Interesting

Maine lobsters have long delighted tourists as the state’s most beloved seafood. But one company thinks the crustaceans can save human lives by providing their blood for use in new drugs.

Maria Jaramilla awoke in the middle of the night to the sound of her panicked mule. When she looked out across her small yard, her confusion turned to shock: A hippopotamus had wandered down her driveway and was inspecting her house.

A Florida man set fire to his hospital bed in an attempt to get the attention of nurses because he felt that they were ignoring him, police said.

The “Leaning Tower of Dallas,” a social media sensation born when a part of a building survived implosion, endured hundreds of blows from a wrecking ball Monday.

All that 84-year-old Mary Ann Wakfield needed to do to win a new car was sink a putt across the entire length of the court at the University of Mississippi’s basketball stadium.

The online retailing giant is opening its first cashier-less supermarket, where shoppers can grab milk or eggs and walk out without waiting in line or ever opening their wallets. It’s the latest sign that Amazon is serious about shaking up the $800 billion grocery industry.

An Ohio woman was arrested for calling 911 when her parents cut off her cellphone service, authorities said.

A security camera captured footage of a jail inmate’s apparent escape attempt from a holding room that ended with her falling through a ceiling and landing head-first in a trash can.

A man drove his Jeep off the the sixth floor of a Los Angeles-area parking garage early Sunday and was taken to a hospital in critical condition, authorities said.

A 23-year-old man jumped out of the back of a moving ambulance and was struck by a car and killed on an interstate near San Diego, authorities said.

A California man who said he wanted to fly to the edge of outer space to see if the world is round has died after his home-built rocket blasted off into the desert sky and plunged back to earth.

Surgeons at King’s College Hospital in London removed a brain tumor from a woman who played the violin during the procedure.

SpaceX aims to launch up to four tourists into a super high orbit, possibly by the end of next year.

A Virginia man held a suspect who was trying to steal goats from his farm at gunpoint until authorities could arrive to make an arrest, authorities said.

A German court has decided a Duesseldorf dog dispute, ruling Monday that not only size matters in determining whether a dog is officially “miniature.”

Disney officials said Monday that the iconic Cinderella Castle at Walt Disney World in Florida would be renovated over the next several months.

Police have dismantled what they say is the Europe Union’s first clandestine underground cigarette factory — four meters (13 feet) under a horse stable in southern Spain.

A Utah man whose body was found in a freezer exonerated his wife by leaving a typed, notarized note saying she bore no responsibility in his death.

Many of us don’t have experience planning a funeral. When it’s time to make arrangements, we might ask friends and neighbors for information about local providers. Or ask family members to help shop and sort through the choices. Many of us do research online.

The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet has to pay more than $150,000 in legal fees for a man who won a lawsuit allowing him to put “IM GOD” on his license plate.

A man who was charged with stealing a pair of Lamborghini SUVs that were then damaged in a crash says he was picked up along the way and wasn’t involved with the theft.

The police chief in a New Hampshire town took it literally when he was stripped of his duties at a local board meeting, disrobing to his underwear and walking out into a snowstorm.

The St. Louis Zoo has a new resident, and boy is he cute.

Burger King is breaking the mold in its new advertising campaign. The burger chain is portraying its Whopper covered in mold in print and TV ads running in Europe and the U.S. The message: Burger King is removing artificial preservatives from its signature burger.

Thanks to modern technology and some expert detective work, a nearly 400-year-old painting that had long been attributed to an unknown artist in Rembrandt’s workshop has now been judged to have been a work of the Dutch master himself.