Growing lists of people changing their names.

BOSTON - An online advertisement featuring Rachael Ray drew complaints about a fringed black-and-white scarf that the celebrity chef wore in the ad, suggesting symbolic support for Muslim extremism and terrorism.

BERLIN - Police say a young man's creative marriage proposal triggered reports of unidentified flying objects from worried Germans.

NEW YORK - A lawyer claimis the company's incompetent and rude employees made his 80-year-old mother's birthday trip to South America a stressful, costly horror.

City officials are apparently willing to dig deep to defend the department's ban on beards.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates began a six-day tour of Pacific countries Thursday, focusing on regional security and U.S. commitments to the area.

Norwegian troops in Afghanistan are being removed from front-line fighting against Taliban insurgents with a new assignment of training Afghan forces.

California labor officials say they are investigating the apparently heat-related death of a teenage farm worker this month.

Is Rachael Ray, the talk-show host, cookbook author and magazine editor, a terrorist sympathizer?

Kevin Whittaker and Cory Jens deserved congratulations after attempting to set a new world record, but they probably didn't want any handshakes.

Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., says if he visits U.S. forces in Iraq, it's to talk to the troops, not to participate in a Republican publicity gimmick.

Two days of diplomatic activity in Beijing ended Thursday with no indication the six-party talks on North Korea's denuclearization will soon restart.

The five nations bordering the Arctic region Wednesday outlined how they will deal with oil and mineral exploration, the environment and other issues there.

Two U.S. Customs officers and five others were arrested Wednesday on drug trafficking and bribery charges, officials said.

U.S. and Iraqi forces have captured dozens of suspects and found caches of weapons in recent days, officials said.

Tim Metcalfe, one of the organizers, said the 2004 record of 189,432 brats was beaten when a "huge dinner rush" near the end of the festival led to 10,000 brats being sold in a single hour, The (Madison) Wisconsin State

Los Angeles Sheriff's Department deputies allege Cyrus Yazdani, who goes by the name "Buket," appears in several YouTube videos defacing signs and buses with spray paint, the Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday. Sheriff's officials said Yazdani, 24, was arrested when