Lionel Messi is in the running for a third consecutive FIFA world player of the year award after being selected Tuesday among the 23 candidates for the 2011 prize.

Argentina forward Messi and seven of his teammates at European and Spanish champion Barcelona are on the Ballon d’Or shortlist, while archrival Real Madrid has five players nominated. Seven Spain internationals are in contention.

It will be the world's most literary mortuary.

Ten leading crime writers are competing for the honor of having a morgue named after them.

Toyota unveiled its ambitions for high-tech healthcare Tuesday, displaying experimental robots that the auto giant says can lift disabled patients from their hospital beds or help them walk.

The company aims to commercialize products such as its "independent walk assist" device sometime after 2013 — seeking to position itself in an industry with great potential in Japan, one of the world's most rapidly aging nations.

Police officers in Oregon say a domestic disturbance suspect more or less fell into their hands — through the ceiling.

Portland police were called Monday to a home to deal with an intoxicated man reported as threatening relatives. Lt. Robert King says they found him barricaded in the attic and determined he wasn't a threat, so they began to leave with the intention of following up later.

Just ten weeks after their lavish, made-for-TV wedding and less than a month after the wedding special aired, reality starlet Kim Kardashian is canceling her marriage to NBA player Kris Humphries.

The "Keeping Up With the Kardashians" star filed for divorce Monday, citing irreconcilable differences.

Nicole Leszczynski couldn't imagine that two chicken salad sandwiches would land her and her husband in jail and her 2-year-old daughter in state custody. But it happened five days ago, when the 30-weeks-pregnant woman forgot to pay for her snack while grocery shopping.

"It was the most ridiculous chain of events that happened," she said while sobbing Monday. "It's still hard to believe what happened."

U.N. investigators have identified a previously unknown complex in Syria that bolsters suspicions that the Syrian government worked with A.Q. Khan, the father of Pakistan's atomic bomb, to acquire technology that could be used to make nuclear arms.

The buildings in northwest Syria closely match the design of a uranium enrichment plant provided to Libya when Moammar Gadhafi was trying to build nuclear weapons under Khan's guidance, officials told The Associated Press.

A new album of recordings by the late soul singer Amy Winehouse will be released in December, Island Records said Monday.

It said "Lioness: Hidden Treasures" will contain 12 songs — previously unreleased tracks, alternative versions of existing hits and brand new songs — recorded by the beehive-wearing singer who died at her London home on July 23.

A new study suggests that when parents are deployed in the military, their children are more than twice as likely to carry a weapon, join a gang or be involved in fights.

And that includes the daughters.

After a years-long delay, an Earth-observing satellite blasted into space early Friday on a dual mission to improve weather forecasts and monitor climate change.

A Delta 2 rocket carrying the NASA satellite lifted off shortly before 3 a.m. from the central California coast. The satellite separated from the rocket about an hour after launching, unfurled its solar panels and headed toward an orbit 500 miles above Earth.