A pair of sprightly llamas jigged their way to immediate social media stardom Thursday after they led dozens of U.S. police a merry dance on the bemused streets of Phoenix, Arizona.

The duo, one white and the other black, had the eyes of the world on them as American media transmitted live footage from the air of them darting across busy roads and parking lots in their brazen -- and for an hour successful -- attempt at evading capture.

Plenty of celebrities have been enraged by rumors of their deaths, but when a story emerged of a particularly grisly end for rocker Mark McGrath he was the one apologizing.

In a PR stunt that largely fell flat, a press release Thursday announced that the lead singer of Sugar Ray -- the band popular in the 1990s whose hits included "When It's Over" -- had been shot dead.

The northern Dutch town of Purmerend has advised residents to arm themselves with an umbrella when going out at night after a mysterious spate of bloody rogue owl attacks.

Over the last three weeks, the European eagle owl has silently swooped on dozens of residents of the usually peaceful town, with many victims requiring hospital treatment.

A school in Canada's mostly French-speaking Quebec province has resorted to using software to teach students to speak French after being unable to find a qualified instructor, trustees said Wednesday.

The school board claimed in a statement that it is the best the school can do as it "struggles" to hire teachers.

London's firefighters say sun rays refracted by a Nutella jar likely caused a house fire.

The city's fire brigade says investigators believe the glass jar — which had been emptied of the hazelnut spread — had been placed on a window sill and refracted sunlight, setting blinds alight.

The built-in bottom washers and pre-warmed seats of Japan's luxury toilets have become the latest flashpoint with China, as Beijing's state-run media launched a thunderous tirade against them Thursday.

The Global Times, which is affiliated with the Communist Party mouthpiece People's Daily, devoted the editorial in both its English and Chinese editions to the subject, under the headline: "Popularity of Japanese toilet seats overstated".

Concerns about public safety standards in South Korea have been fueled by shocking CCTV images of a young couple being swallowed up by a sinkhole that opened at their feet on the sidewalk in Seoul. 

The footage, which has gone viral on social networking sites, shows the couple plunging through the paved sidewalk, shortly after alighting from a bus in the South Korean capital, as other passers-by look on in horror.

Revelers at Rio's 450th birthday party bash this Sunday are licking their lips at the prospect of devouring a slice of a 450-meter-long (1,500 feet) cake.

And if the 2.1 tons of sugar don't give you a head rush, the scale of the ingredients will: 2.5 tons of flour; 3,000 eggs; 1,000 liters of milk -- and as much again of whipped cream.

If you've ever wanted to sleep with a giant lizard -- and let's face it, you only live once -- one Japanese hotel has just the thing with its soon-to-be opened Godzilla Room.

Hotel Gracery in Tokyo's buzzing entertainment district of Shinjuku offers the chance to catch some shuteye under the watchful gaze of a man-size atomic mutant as he stomps on a miniature Japanese capital in the corner of your room.

A sea turtle that was rescued from frigid Northwest waters and treated at the Oregon Coast Aquarium has caught a ride back to California on a Coast Guard training flight.

The aquarium in Newport says the endangered olive ridley turtle named Solstice hitched a ride Tuesday on a Coast Guard C-130 and will complete her rehabilitation at SeaWorld in San Diego.