CAMBRIDGE, Idaho - Using his trusty BB gun to help him return to Earth, 48-year-old gas station owner Kent Couch realized a boyhood dream on Saturday.

BERLIN (AFP) - Rarely do brains and brawn come together in this way. A Russian was crowned world champion Sunday in the novelty sport of chess boxing that requires equal skill at moving pawns and throwing punches.

EAU CLAIRE, Mich. - Brian "Young Gun" Krause has out-spit his father to claim his seventh championship at the International Cherry Pit Spitting Championship in Eau Claire, Michiagn.

BEIJING (AFP) - Zhang Jie and Ma Yue plan to be among the crush of love-struck Chinese getting married at the start of the Olympics despite a series of disasters that have cast doubt over the auspicious day.

BALTIMORE - FedEx prides itself on reliability. But a mistaken delivery tipped off police to a 90-kilogram shipment of marijuana that someone tried to send from Pembroke Pines, Florida, to Baltimore via the shipping company.

VATICAN CITY (AFP) - A man posing as a priest was prevented from taking confessions in St Peter's Basilica, Vatican judge Gianluigi Marrone said in an interview published on Saturday.

BERLIN (Reuters) - A man tore the head from a controversial waxwork figure of Adolf Hitler on the opening day of Berlin's Madame Tussauds museum Saturday, police said.

WAUKESHA, Wis. - A 52-year-old Milwaukee-area man has been accused of faking heart attacks to avoid paying restaurant bills and cab fares.

NEW YORK (AFP) - American Joey Chestnut choked down five frankfurters in a tense two-man eat-off to defeat legendary Japanese eater Takeru Kobayashi for the second year running in the annual hot dog eating contest at Coney Island Friday.

GENEVA (AFP) - A Swiss court has ordered that a chicken be locked up in a soundproof box every night so its neighbours can get a good night's sleep, the ATS news agency reported Friday.

DOVER, N.Y. - A pair of 17-year-olds who drove to Oniontown after a series of YouTube videos portrayed the hamlet as a run-down, backwoods dump were pelted with rocks by an angry group of young residents.

FAIRFIELD, Conn. - A combative cat named Lewis who frightened the neighbours and got his owner into legal trouble two years ago has done so well under house arrest that the case has now been scratched.

NEW YORK - Joey Chestnut has reclaimed the top spot as winner of the annual hot dog eating contest in Coney Island after first tying with arch rival Takeru Kobayashi in a 10-minute chow-down and then beating him in a five-dog eat-off.

GENEVA (AFP) - An international standard for tomatoes has been adopted, ending about seven years of intense debates between countries on what qualifies as a proper tomato.

LONDON - Britain's High Court has ruled that Pringles are not a potato snack, and thus are not subject to value-added tax.

OTTAWA - Police have nabbed a suspect in the thefts of 25 manhole covers in one area of the capital city.

THE HAGUE (AFP) - A 10-year-old boy was given a fine for driving a large delivery truck on a public road in the Netherlands, police said Friday.

STOCKHOLM (AFP) - A man deemed to have the shortest and "most ridiculous commute" in Malmoe has won a bicycle as part of a campaign to reduce car traffic in the southern Swedish city , an organiser said Friday.

BUCHAREST, Romania - A court has ordered a Romanian surgeon to pay $795,000 in compensation to a patient whose penis he accidentally severed during an operation.

BEIJING (AFP) - Beijing's notoriously foul-smelling and poorly tended public toilets will feature some rarely seen luxuries during the Olympics -- toilet paper and soap, state media reported on Friday.

MINNEAPOLIS - A college student claimed it was all a joke when he put his vote in this fall's presidential election up for sale on the web auction site eBay. But prosecutors didn't see the humour.

ALTON, Ill. - An Illinois woman says her beloved miniature dachshund gnawed off her right big toe while she was asleep.

NEW YORK - He's gone from hot-dog top dog to underdog.

NEW YORK (AFP) - American Joey "Jaws" Chestnut will defend his crown as the world's fastest hot-dog eater on Friday against former champion Takeru "Tsunami" Kobayashi of Japan in an Independence Day showdown at Coney Island.

INDIANAPOLIS - One of the fireworks bursting above Indianapolis for tonight's 4th of July show will include the cremated remains of Meredith Smith. He ran the annual event for 40 years before dying earlier this year.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A sculpture of the signing of the Declaration of Independence made from a one-tonne block of cheddar cheese glistened on the sidewalk of Times Square in New York on Thursday as an artist's tribute to the Fourth of July.

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada's U.S. embassy apologized on Thursday for a party invitation that featured a prominent figure in Canadian history brandishing a large plate of French fries covered in cheese curds and gravy.

MADRID (AFP) - A revolt was brewing in Spain's cabinet Thursday as members refused to wear ties in parliament, aiming to save energy and fight global warming by removing the need for the air conditioning to be turned up.