U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has a history with broken planes but during Iran nuclear talks in Switzerland this week even his bike needed fixing.

In what sceptics might call a metaphor for the talks in Lausanne, Kerry's orange racer on Monday couldn't get into gear properly, Lionel Schumann of the Sam's Bike shop in the town of La Tour-le-Peilz said.

A Dutch court has upheld the right of Amsterdam's Stedelijk Museum of modern art to ban an artist from entering after he threatened to urinate on works, including those by Marlene Dumas.

Rob van Koningsbruggen this week lost his suit in an Amsterdam court to force the world-famous museum, close to the Rijksmuseum and Van Gogh Museum, to allow him in, the Stedelijk said on Tuesday.

A corgi could have been forgiven for eyeing a new royal home when Queen Elizabeth II, well known for her love of dogs, visited the London animal charity where he lives Tuesday.

Twelve-year-old Beama featured in a canine guard of honour for the monarch when she opened the new kennels at Battersea Dogs and Cats Home. The dog was later elevated on to a seat so the queen could meet him properly.

A 77-year-old Utah man charged with lewdness after sunbathing nude in his backyard agreed to a plea deal Tuesday that keeps his record clean as long as he wears a swimsuit.

Myron Lee Kipp pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor charges in Farmington. But under the terms of the deal with prosecutors, the pleas won't be recorded if Kipp stays covered over the next year.

The U.S. Secret Service has requested $8 million to build a replica of the White House for use in training agents to prevent incidents like last year's mansion intrusion, the agency's director said Tuesday.

Joseph Clancy said the agency's current rudimentary training facility, in Beltsville, Maryland, is not to scale, and has "no structures, vehicle gates, lighting, or other aides to enhance the training simulations."

A bill for $1.40 sent out by a Maine water district almost a half-century ago has finally been returned.

The Brunswick and Topsham Water District mailed the bill to a resident of Topsham in October 1969. The bill was supposed to be returned to the water district by the post office because the customer's post office box had been closed.

Celebrating her 100th birthday with a parachute jump is not enough for South African Georgina Harwood. She plans to make her centenary even more exciting by doing a shark cage dive on Monday.

Her birthday skydive was a tandem jump in which she was in harness with another person. The jump took place Saturday near the Melkbosstrand area north of Cape Town.

A chewy cheese made by generations of yak herders in Nepal has become an unexpected hit overseas -- as a dog treat -- bringing entrepreneurs and Himalayan farmers a windfall.

Known as "Churpi", the dried cheese made from churned yak's milk and cow's milk has long been a popular snack domestically.   

A Frenchman tried to smuggle his Russian wife into the European Union by hiding her in a massive suitcase, without realizing there had been no need for the would-be James Bond scheme.

Poland's border guards detained the man, who authorities said was in his 60s, on Friday at the railway station in Terespol, an eastern town on the border with Belarus.  

An Irish Catholic priest gave a whole new meaning to "white collar boxing" at the weekend after taking to the ring to battle a parishioner in a charity fight.

Father Pierre "Jalapeno" Pepper donned the boxing gloves for the first time as part of his parish's fundraising "Saint Patrick's Weekend Punch-Up", ahead of Ireland's national day on Tuesday for its patron saint.