A burnt bowl of macaroni and cheese forced a brief evacuation at the Iowa Capitol.

Iowa Department of Administrative Services spokesman Caleb Hunter says somebody's lunch burned in a microwave Monday behind the Senate Chambers on the second floor of the Capitol. He says the smoke prompted a short evacuation of the entire building during the morning.

There's something about a British general election that brings out oddballs, loons and eccentric buffoons who dream of making it to parliament.

In the run-up to polling day on May 7, Britain's stuffy politicians are sharing the hustings with quirky candidates poking fun at the whole election ritual.

A court in southern Russia has sentenced three young women to brief jail terms for making a video showing them twerking next to a World War II memorial.

Russia celebrates the 70th anniversary of the Allies' victory in the World War II next month, an emotionally charged holiday the Kremlin has been using for propaganda purposes.

Quack! Quack! A duck call ringtone helped a Louisiana firefighter rescue six ducklings from a storm drain.

Spokesman Chad Duffaut of St. Tammany Fire District #1 says even with realistic quacking sounds coming from his cellphone, it took Firefighter Cody Knecht about 90 minutes to catch the first four baby mallards in the southeast Louisiana community of Slidell.

There's something about a British general election that brings out oddballs, loons and eccentric buffoons who dream of making it to parliament.

In the run-up to polling day on May 7, Britain's stuffy politicians are sharing the hustings with quirky candidates poking fun at the whole election ritual.

There may be no such thing as a free lunch, but fear not because there was free coffee supposedly going at Starbucks in North America on Friday after a major computer glitch.

Thousands of people flooded Twitter to boast that they paid nothing for their caffeine fix, while others complained that they had not been so lucky and had been asked to leave the store because it was closing early.

Prosecutors detained 14 people Friday who are suspected of belonging to a network of well-dressed robbers who were trained to rob luxury items in Romania and the European Union.

The alleged leader was among those detained and prosecutors have asked for their arrest.

Chinese officials are launching a campaign to crack down on stripteases and other lewd shows that have become popular at funerals in some rural areas, the Ministry of Culture said Friday.

The ministry said in a statement that it will tighten control over rural culture, where vulgar performances have been thriving because of a general lack of cultural events.

Kenyan road safety authorities have threatened to charge injured pedestrians with attempted suicide in a bid to halt a rise in road accidents in the east African nation.

The warning came as police revealed road fatalities were up 10 percent this year, with jaywalkers accounting for nearly half those killed.

A naked nationalist is stirring up election billboards in Japan, offering a bit of colour -- and a lot of flesh -- to get out the vote.

Right winger Teruki Goto is pictured on his campaign poster in his birthday suit, wielding a samurai-style sword in front of two Rising Sun flags and the imperial chrysanthemum crest.