Pittsburgh police say a man tried to carjack a plainclothes officer near filming for the latest Batman movie — and allegedly told him it was part of the script.

Detective Robert DiGiacomo was in an unmarked vehicle around 7:15 p.m. Saturday, looking for a suspect in an assault. That's when police say a man opened the car door, sat down and told the officer to get out.

From Syria to Libya and Egypt, the uprisings and unrest gripping the Arab world have cast a pall on the start of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month when the traditional focus on piety will likely be eclipsed by more unrest.

Food prices — part of the economic hardships that catalyzed the ouster of the Egyptian and Tunisian leaders — are still climbing. And protesters have shown little patience for conciliatory gestures by governments after decades of empty promises.

Attracting dust but few prospective buyers in a car lot on the outskirts of Kabul, three saloon cars, a crane and a dump truck sit abandoned due a numerical curse that has swept Afghanistan.

A bizarre phenomenon that equates the number 39 with prostitution has become a headache for the car industry, as buyers avoid car license plates containing the dreaded number for fear of being ostracized.

Cities and organizations in the U.S. state of Maryland have found an original and ecologically sound method to cut the weeds from their parks and gardens: Bring in the goats.

Brian Knox, owner of Eco-Goats, a business based in Davidsonville, Maryland, said the hungry animals graze on dense vegetation and munch unwanted weeds and invasive plants while also leaving fertilizer behind for the grasses that people want.

Kyrgyzstan on Friday dismantled a "Statue of Liberty" in the center of the capital Bishkek, mocked for its apparent resemblance to a widely disliked former First Lady.

Workers in the early hours took down the towering statue, which depicted a female angel sitting on top of a globe and holding aloft the roof of a traditional yurt.

Vienna police have shut down an unusual cannabis "ring" — hemp growing along the Austrian capital's busy Ring Street encircling the city's center.

Alerted by a news article about the illegal crop, police officers on Friday plucked a 200-meter (yard) stretch of green space along the three-lane street clean of the offending plants.

A bonnet dryer saved a German grandmother from serious injury or worse when the ceiling of the salon where she was having her hair done collapsed, the Bild daily reported Friday.

"At first I didn't realise what was happening. You can't hear a thing under the bonnet," said Karin Koellner, 72, from Gladbeck in western Germany. "Then bits of the ceiling broke off. But the dryer worked like a protective helmet."

A fugitive who taunted police on his Facebook page to 'catch me if you can. I'm in Brooklyn' has been arrested.

The Daily News says U.S. marshals and NYPD detectives tracked Victor Burgos down to an apartment in Brooklyn's Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood Monday night, sitting at a computer with his Facebook page open.

Want fries with that ... doughnut?

A food booth in Syracuse will unveil the "Big Kahuna Donut Burger" at this year's New York State Fair.

A Brazilian woman who ate a dish of savory meatballs with tomato sauce only to discover a condom in the tomato can, will be awarded $5,000 in damage, the Globo news website reported Wednesday.

The southern state of Rio Grande do Sul fined the tomato sauce maker the amount for "moral damages."