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A North Carolina town councilman planning to run for U.S. Congress has quit his post by submitting a resignation letter in Klingon, the language of a fictional extraterrestrial warrior species on the "Star Trek" TV and film series. David Waddell said he used Klingon to resign from the Indian Trail Town Council on Thursday because the fierce-looking science fiction characters valued integrity, honor and duty. The letter indicated that Waddell, whose four-year term is up in December 2015, plans to resign at the end of this month. "Teach (the) city (the) constitution," said the English translation. "I will return next time to (witness) victory." Waddell, often a minority voice on the council, said he plans to mount a campaign on the Constitution Party's platform for U.S. Democratic Senator Kay Hagan's seat. "I am going away, (but) I'm not done fighting," he said. The city's mayor, Michael Alvarez, who also describes himself a

China has held seven people in southern Guangdong province for injecting dirty pond water into lamb meat to swell its weight and raise its price, state television reported in the latest food scandal to hit the world's second largest economy. _0"> The suspects slaughtered up to 100 sheep per day at an illegal warehouse, pumping bacteria-ridden water into the meat before it was sold at markets, food stalls and restaurants in major cities such as Guangzhou and Foshan, China Central Television (CCTV) said in a three-minute report. China has been hit by a number of food safety scandals, from deadly chemical-laced dairy products to recycled "gutter oil" used for cooking. Last week, Wal-Mart Stores Inc, the world's largest retailer, apologized after a Chinese supplier of donkey meat snacks was found to have mixed fox meat into the product. Authorities raided the illegal lamb meat abattoir in Guangdong at the end of December, finding around 30 carcasses injecte

An international media frenzy over reports that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's uncle had been executed by throwing him to a pack of dogs appears to have originated as satire on a Chinese microblogging website. The story, which spread like wildfire after it was picked up by a Hong Kong-based newspaper, has created an image that Pyongyang's young ruler is even more brutal and unpredictable than previously believed. While North Korea has said it purged and executed Kim's uncle, Jang Song Thaek, last month, it did not release details of how the man who was once the second most powerful figure in the isolated country was killed. Initial speculation was that Jang had been killed by firing squad, a fate that media outlets said was the usual one reserved for "traitors". But an alternative narrative of the 67-year old's death emerged on what appears to have been a satirical post on the Chinese Tencent Weibo site that has been repeated by many media outlets wor

Boxes filled with bananas and cocaine were delivered to five Berlin supermarkets in what police on Tuesday called a "logistical error" by drug smugglers. _0"> Supermarket staff discovered the containers with a total of 140 kg of cocaine on Monday shortly before the fruit went on sale to the public, police and customs investigators said. It was the largest discovery of cocaine in Germany's capital in about 15 years and has an estimated black market value of 6 million euros, according to police. "We were of course surprised," senior police officer Olaf Schremm, who heads the local drug investigation department, told reporters. "I don't know where the mistake was in the perpetrators' delivery chain." The banana cartons, part of a consignment of 1,134 boxes, were brought by ship from Colombia to Hamburg and delivered to a fruit wholesaler in Berlin. Cocaine was found in seven of them, Schremm said. The boxes were eventually delivered

Kraft Foods is warning it may run short of its Velveeta cheese product, right at a time of high seasonal U.S. demand for the orangey-yellow foodstuff. _0"> "It is possible consumers may not be able to find some Velveeta products on store shelves over the next couple of weeks," Kraft spokeswoman Jody Moore said in an email on Tuesday. "This is really a short-term issue that's more noticeable right now given the increased seasonal demand. We have not heard many complaints from consumers so far." The processed cheese product is popular this time of year for dips and other recipes calling for melted cheese that are often used as snacks for watching football on television. The National Football League playoffs began last weekend, and college football held its championship game on Monday night. Kraft offered no details regarding any specific shortage in the supply chain, and Moore did not immediately respond to follow-up questions. The story generated a

Kraft Foods is warning it may run short of its Velveeta cheese product, right at a time of high seasonal U.S. demand for the orangey-yellow foodstuff. _0"> "It is possible consumers may not be able to find some Velveeta products on store shelves over the next couple of weeks," Kraft spokeswoman Jody Moore said in an email on Tuesday. "This is really a short-term issue that's more noticeable right now, given the increased seasonal demand. We have not heard many complaints from consumers so far." The processed cheese product is popular this time of year for dips and other recipes calling for melted cheese to make snacks often consumed while watching football on television. The National Football League playoffs began last weekend, and college football held its championship game on Monday night. "The driver is really the increased demand related to the football post-season. This is something that would likely have gone unnoticed at any other time o

England cricketers Matt Prior and Stuart Broad turned Good Samaritans after talking a man out of jumping off a bridge in Darling Harbour, Sydney, media reports said on Wednesday. _0"> Wicketkeeper Prior was with fast bowler Broad and England security officer Terry Minish when they spotted the unnamed man, who was thought to be English, about to jump. "We just did what anyone would do in that situation," Prior was quoted as saying in the Daily Telegraph. "It all happened very quickly and we acted on impulse," said Prior, who was dropped after the third test of England's 5-0 Ashes thrashing by Australia . Broad and Prior had been at a fund-raising event organized by the Barmy Army (England's fan club) before spotting the man, said Minish. They talked to him for almost an hour before police arrived. "We were trying to help a bloke who was struggling and in a bad way. I'm just glad we left the bar when we did and we were there for him,&qu

Boxes filled with bananas and cocaine were delivered to five Berlin supermarkets in what police on Tuesday called a "logistical error" by drug smugglers. _0"> Supermarket staff discovered the containers with a total of 140 kg of cocaine on Monday shortly before the fruit went on sale to the public, police and customs investigators said. It was the largest discovery of cocaine in Germany's capital in about 15 years and has an estimated black market value of 6 million euros, according to police. "We were of course surprised," senior police officer Olaf Schremm, who heads the local drug investigation department, told reporters. "I don't know where the mistake was in the perpetrators' delivery chain." The banana cartons, part of a consignment of 1,134 boxes, were brought by ship from Colombia to Hamburg and delivered to a fruit wholesaler in Berlin. Cocaine was found in seven of them, Schremm said. The boxes were eventually delivered

A 33-year-old Oklahoma man has been charged with killing his stepfather by giving him an "atomic wedgie," that caused the victim to suffocate on his own underwear. Brad Lee Davis was charged with murder in the death of 58-year-old Denver St. Clair in a drunken family fight at a residence just east of Oklahoma City, the Pottawatomie County Sheriff's Office said in an arrest affidavit obtained on Wednesday. Police arrested Davis on Tuesday. The affidavit said he "grabbed St. Clair's underwear and gave him an 'atomic wedgie.' Davis allegedly pulled the elastic waistband of St. Clair's underwear over his head and around his neck." Oklahoma Medical Examiner spokeswoman Amy Elliott said the cause of death was asphyxiation and blunt force trauma. Pottawatomie County Sheriff Deputy Travis Palmer said Davis and St. Clair were drinking beer on the night of December 21 at the older man's residence when St. Clair began speaking ill about his wife,

The University of Utah is investigating what it calls "credible information" that a woman at a Salt Lake City area fertility clinic was artificially inseminated with sperm, not from her husband, but from a part-time lab employee. _0"> The school released a statement saying no records remained at the now-closed lab, Reproductive Medical Technologies Inc, to prove the woman's claim, and that the part-time employee died in 1999. A University of Utah spokeswoman declined on Friday to comment beyond the statement, which said the university did not own or operate the lab, but contracted with it for specimen preparation and semen analysis. "Through genetic testing, a woman who received artificial insemination in 1991 discovered the biological father of her child was not her husband, as she had assumed," the university statement said. "She traced the genetics of her child to a man who was a former employee of a now-defunct medical lab, Reproductive Med

A life-sized replica of the Titanic will become the centerpiece of a landlocked theme park in China , featuring a museum and a shipwreck simulation to give visitors a harrowing sense of the 1912 disaster. The Chinese version of "the unsinkable ship", with a price tag of 1 billion yuan ($165 million) and an expected opening date in 2016, will be built at least 1,500 km (930 miles) from the nearest ocean in the central province of Sichuan. Su Shaojun, chief executive of the Seven Star Energy Investment Group that funded the project, said Asia needs its own Titanic museum. "We think it's worth spreading the spirit of the Titanic. The universal love and sense of responsibility shown during the Titanic shipwreck represent the spiritual richness of human civilization," he told a media conference on Sunday. The project aims to be more than a museum that replicates the original ship and the 1997 movie that became a global hit. The simulation will allow several hun

The management of the Empire State Building on Monday filed a $1 million lawsuit against a photographer who shot topless pictures of model atop its iconic 86th floor observatory. Last August, a model climbed to the crowded observation deck and took her top off as 30-year-old photographer Allen Henson captured the image on his cell phone. The photo quickly went viral on the internet and angered the owners of the Empire State Building, one of the most popular tourist attractions in New York City, who said the observation deck was full of tourists, including children, at the time the photo was taken. "We were doing a social experiment," said Henson, adding he has been photographing fashion models for three years and also shot photos of topless women in Central Park and in Manhattan's Peninsula Hotel. Henson began taking the series of photos after becoming aware of a May 2013, New York City memorandum that prevents police officers from arresting women who expose their b

Southwest Airlines suspended two pilots from flying on Monday after their jetliner with 124 passengers landed at the wrong airport near Branson, Missouri, late on Sunday, a spokeswoman said. A Southwest captain, who has worked 15 years for the airline, and a first officer were removed from flying duties pending a federal investigation of the landing, said Michelle Agnew, a Southwest spokeswoman. The Boeing 737-700 landed at M. Graham Clark Downtown Airport instead of at Branson Airport, the main commercial air strip near Branson, which has a much longer runway, Southwest said in a statement. The airports are about 7 miles apart. The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the mistaken landing but had no other comment, spokeswoman Elizabeth Isham Cory said. The plane left Chicago Midway Airport on Sunday on a flight to Dallas Love Field with a planned first stop in Branson, a musical entertainment and tourism mecca in southwest Missouri. Southwest is looking into "a

Penis pumps cost the U.S. government's Medicare program $172 million between 2006 and 2011, about twice as much as the consumer would have paid at the retail level, according to a government watchdog's report released on Monday. _0"> The report by the inspector general for the Department of Health and Human Services said Medicare, the government health insurance system for seniors, paid nearly 474,000 claims for vacuum erection systems, or VES, totaling about $172.4 million from 2006 to 2011. Yearly claims for the devices nearly doubled from $20.6 million in 2006 to $38.6 million in 2011. According to the Mayo Clinic, penis pumps are one of a few treatment options for erectile dysfunction. Government waste is a major issue in budget talks in the U.S. capital as lawmakers try to reach agreement on a $1 trillion spending bill. "Medicare payment amounts for VES remain grossly excessive compared with the amounts that non-Medicare payers pay," said the report

The billionaire creator of Beanie Babies, Ty Warner, will serve two years of probation, including mentoring high school students, following his guilty plea on a tax evasion charge, but no jail time, a federal judge ruled on Tuesday. Warner, 69, who pleaded guilty in October, told U.S. District Court Judge Charles Kocoras in Chicago that his crime was the "biggest mistake" of his life. Warner already had agreed to pay a civil penalty of nearly $53.6 million. Ranked as the 209th richest American by Forbes with a listed net worth of $2.6 billion in 2013, Warner failed to report more than $24.4 million in income and evaded nearly $5.6 million in federal taxes from millions hidden in Swiss bank accounts, according to Chicago prosecutors. Prosecutors had argued that Warner should serve time in jail given the extent of the cover-up, and federal guidelines called for up to five years in prison. "I am truly sorry," said the slightly-built Warner, who wore headphones to

A man caught armed with a knife trying to break into Buckingham Palace, the London home of Queen Elizabeth, was sentenced on Wednesday to 16 months in jail. _0"> David Belmar, 44, appeared in Southwark Crown Court in London having pleaded guilty to trespassing on a protected site last October and in possession of a bladed article. Police said he was arrested trying to enter one of the palace gates. The Queen was not at the palace at the time. Belmar, of Haringey, north London, was sentenced to 16 months imprisonment for possession of a knife and 6 months to run concurrently for trespass. The incident came only a month after police arrested two men over a break-in at the palace in one of the most serious security breaches there in around 30 years. A police spokesman said both were bailed with no charges yet laid. One of the men, aged 37, is now under the care of mental health care professionals. One of the biggest security breaches at Buckingham Palace happened in 1982 w

Having an unusual personality structure could be the secret to making other people laugh, scientists said on Thursday after research showed that comedians have high levels of psychotic personality traits. In a study in the British Journal of Psychiatry, researchers analyzed comedians from Australia , Britain and the United States and found they scored significantly higher on four types of psychotic characteristics compared to a control group of people who had non-creative jobs. The traits included a tendency towards impulsive or anti-social behavior, and a tendency to avoid intimacy. "The creative elements needed to produce humor are strikingly similar to those characterizing the cognitive style of people with psychosis - both schizophrenia and bipolar disorder," said Gordon Claridge of the University of Oxford's department of experimental psychology, who led the study. Although the traits in question are known as "psychotic", Claridge said, they can also

Norwegian students solved nearly 5 million algebra equations in a week long challenge, using an app aimed at popularizing mathematics among children whose maths skills have been steadily sliding in international rankings. _0"> Students hoped to just beat the previous record of 400,000 equations set by students in Washington state using the Dragonbox app; but that record fell in just three hours, organizers said. "This has been a mind-blowing experience for us," Dragonbox co-founder Jean Baptiste Huynh said as the competition came to an end on Wednesday. "No one has done anything of this scale on a national level before." "The best part is that this is scalable. We hope to do a national event also in the US and in Brazil within a year. And then we might go global with these events," he added. Norwegian students were ranked 30th in the 2012 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), a big drop from 21st just three years earlier. U.

A critic of President Francois Hollande and France's ruling elite dumped tonnes of horse manure in front of the national parliament building in Paris on Thursday in a pungent protest against French politics. _0"> "Out with Hollande and the entire political class. Long live the Sixth Republic," read a message on the side of the man's articulated truck. France's present-day Fifth Republic was founded in 1958 with Charles de Gaulle its first president. The unnamed perpetrator was detained by police before he was able to shed all of his truckload of dung at the steps of the Bourbon Palace, the building that houses the lower house of parliament on the edge of the Seine river in downtown Paris, witnesses said. Authorities began a mass clear-up operation. Hollande, hit by magazine allegations of a love affair with an actress and battling to restore the fortunes of Europe's second-largest economy, has the lowest popularity ratings of any leader in modern-

Pope Francis shook up the scandal-plagued Vatican bank on Wednesday, removing four of five cardinals from an oversight body in a break with the clerical financial establishment he inherited from his predecessor. It was his latest move to get to grips with an institution that has often been an embarrassment for the Holy See and which he has vowed to either reform or close. The four cardinals were removed just 11 months into their five-year terms as commissioners, which began under former Pope Benedict, who resigned last February. The changes came as Francis approached the first anniversary of a pontificate marked by austerity and sobriety, underlined by his decision to give up the papal apartments in favour of a modest suite. The new team includes two cardinals - Toronto's Thomas Christopher Collins and Vienna's Christoph Schoenborn - from relatively rich dioceses who have had extensive dealings with financial affairs. The others are Archbishop Pietro Parolin, the Vatican

U.S. Supreme Court justices expressed doubt on Wednesday about a Massachusetts law that mandates a protective buffer zone around abortion clinics to allow patients unimpeded access, indicating they may strike it down as unconstitutional as demanded by anti-abortion protesters. Challenging the 2007 law, anti-abortion activists say it violated their freedom of speech rights under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution by preventing them from standing on the sidewalk and speaking to people entering the clinics. During a one-hour argument before the high court, a majority of the nine justices expressed concern that the law may be too broad. One justice, Elena Kagan, asked questions indicating she felt the size of the 35-feet (11 meter) no-entry zone for protesters around clinics was simply too big. A narrow ruling overturning the law as too broad could give the state the opportunity to enact a new, less-restrictive statute. One of the main concerns raised by justices was the la

U.S. stocks rose on Wednesday, with the S&P 500 climbing to an all-time closing high after strong earnings from Bank of America and data signaled that the economy was improving. Bank of America Corp ( id="symbol_BAC.N_0"> BAC.N ) climbed 2.3 percent to $17.15 and gave one of the biggest boosts to the S&P 500 after the second-largest U.S. bank said its quarterly profit surged by nearly $3 billion on an increase in revenue. The report came a day after both JPMorgan Chase & Co ( id="symbol_JPM.N_1"> JPM.N ) and Wells Fargo & Co ( id="symbol_WFC.N_2"> WFC.N ) also posted better-than-expected earnings, though Wells Fargo's mortgage lending slowed to the lowest level in five years. "So far so good with bank earnings this season, and it is very positive that we're seeing significant declines in foreclosures, which is very positive for the economy," said David Kelly, chief global strategist for JPMorgan Funds in New

A 12-year-old boy who wounded two students when he opened fire with a shotgun at a New Mexico middle school took the firearm from his home, modified it and planned the attack in advance, police said on Wednesday. Investigators were also continuing to look into the possibility that the boy, who has not been publicly identified, warned some friends before carrying out the attack on Tuesday at Berrendo Middle School in Roswell, police said. The shooting, in which an 11-year-old boy and a 13-year-old girl were seriously wounded, occurred in the school gym, where students tend to wait during inclement weather before classes begin. There was no immediate word on a motive. "We did find evidence that the suspect had planned this event," New Mexico State Police Chief Pete Kassetas told reporters, while declining to reveal any more details. The boy had modified the weapon, a 20-gauge shotgun, to give it a sawed-off handle, which produced more of a pistol grip, and he had three ro

China called on IMF member nations on Wednesday to stick to a commitment to give emerging markets more power at the global lender after U.S. lawmakers set back historic reforms that would give developing countries a greater say. _0"> The remarks by Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei were an indirect criticism of the United States, the biggest and most powerful IMF member, where lawmakers failed on Monday to agree on funding measures needed for the reforms to move forward, though Hong did not mention the United States by name. The U.S. Congress must sign off on the IMF funding to complete 2010 reforms that would make China the IMF's third-largest member and revamp the IMF board to reduce the dominance of Western Europe. The changes would also give greater say to nations such as Brazil and India to reflect their growing economic heft. "The IMF quotas reform is an important decision made by the organization," Hong said at a daily news briefing. &quo

Chinese operational inexperience and communications difficulties on both sides contributed to a near-collision between the USS Cowpens and a Chinese warship in the South China Sea last month, the head of U.S. forces in the Asia-Pacific said on Wednesday. Admiral Samuel Locklear, the head of U.S. Pacific Command, told a Navy conference the Cowpens, a guided missile cruiser, was monitoring China's first aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, as it conducted operations in international waters for the first time when the incident occurred. The Cowpens was approached on December 5 by a Chinese warship that maneuvered in front of it at a distance of about 500 yards (meters), forcing the U.S. vessel to take evasive action to avoid a collision, defense officials said. "I believe that there was ... a lack of experience on some of their smaller ships and I think we have to understand that for now," Locklear told the Surface Navy Association during a question and answer session at it

A California appellate court refused on Wednesday to overturn the conviction of Michael Jackson's personal physician, Conrad Murray, who was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the death of the pop star. _0"> The three-judge panel of California 2nd District Court of Appeal unanimously upheld Murray's 2011 conviction, ruling that there was sufficient evidence and there were no errors during his trial. Grenada-born Murray, 60, was released from a Los Angeles jail in October after serving two years. Murray's six-week trial in 2011 grabbed global attention after Jackson, preparing for a series of comeback concerts in London, died unexpectedly in 2009 at age 50 from an overdose of the surgical anesthetic, propofol. Prosecutors successfully argued at the trial that Murray, who was hired by concert promoter AEG Live as Jackson's general practitioner, was grossly negligent in administering the powerful anesthetic, which was used to help the singer sleep.

China has flight-tested a hypersonic missile delivery vehicle in a move that was scientific in nature and not targeted at any country, the Defence Ministry said on Wednesday. A Chinese military build-up has raised regional jitters. Many countries in Asia have welcomed a stated U.S. intention to shift more attention and military assets back to the region. They are beefing up military spending and ties with Washington. "Our planned scientific research tests conducted in our territory are normal," the Beijing Defence Ministry said in a faxed response to Reuters. "These tests are not targeted at any country and at any specific goals." The statement confirmed a report by the online Washington Free Beacon newspaper that the hypersonic glide vehicle (HGV) was detected flying at 10 times the speed of sound over China last week. A spokesman for the Pentagon said it was aware of the test. "We routinely monitor foreign defence activities and we are aware of this

Egyptians who voted in a referendum overwhelmingly approved a new constitution, official sources said, citing early results of a ballot that could set the stage for army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to declare his candidacy for president. About 90 percent of voters approved the constitution, the state news agency and a government official said. It comes as no surprise: the constitution won wide support among Egyptians who backed the army overthrow of President Mohamed Mursi in July, and there was little or no trace of a no campaign as the state presses a campaign on dissent. Mursi's Muslim Brotherhood, which is sure to dispute the official numbers, had called for a boycott of the two-day vote, seeing it as part of a coup against a leader freely elected 18 months ago. It had called for anti-government protests. After nine people were killed in clashes between police and Mursi supporters on Tuesday, the protests stretched into Wednesday. Protesters skirmished with the pol

Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system intercepted five rockets fired at the city of Ashkelon from the Gaza Strip on Thursday, and the military responded with a series of air strikes on the Hamas-controlled territory. _0"> No group has taken responsibility for firing the rockets, which were shot down by Iron Dome's small radar-guided missiles over Ashkelon, a coastal city of some 125,000 people about 12 km (seven miles) north of Gaza. Israel says it holds the Islamist group Hamas, which has ruled the Palestinian enclave since 2007, responsible for all cross-border rocket fire. Palestinian security officials said two Hamas camps were hit by Israel's air strikes and that five people were wounded. (Reporting by Ari Rabinovitch and Saleh Jadallah, editing by Elizabeth Piper)

Wealthy Chinese are likely to buy fewer luxury goods again this year after the steepest cut-back on spending in at least five years, changing the game for high-end retailers like Louis Vuitton which have staked their growth on China . Overall spending by wealthy Chinese fell by 15 percent in 2013, the third consecutive year of decline, according to a survey by the Hurun Report. Spending on gifts in particular also declined by a quarter. The drop coincides with a government crackdown on corruption and gifting, as well as an a growing penchant for travelling and shopping overseas to circumvent Chinese consumption taxes on luxury goods as high as 40 percent. The shrinking ranks of wealthy residents in China has also reduced luxury spending. One in three so-called high net worth individuals have already left, or are planning to leave, the country, the report showed, mostly to seek better opportunities for their children's education. Chinese are the top consumers of luxury goods g

A Thai anti-corruption agency said on Thursday it would investigate a money-guzzling rice subsidy program that has fuelled opposition to Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, as protesters marched through the capital demanding she resign. The unrest flared in November and escalated this week when demonstrators led by former opposition politician Suthep Thaugsuban occupied main intersections of the capital, Bangkok, but the number of people camping out overnight at some of the intersections appears to be dropping. The turmoil is the latest episode in an eight-year conflict that pits Bangkok's middle class and royalist establishment against the mostly poorer, rural supporters of Yingluck and her brother, former premier Thaksin Shinawatra. Yingluck's Puea Thai Party was helped to power in 2011 by offering to buy rice at way above the market price to help poor farmers. Critics say the program is riddled with corruption and - a particular gripe of the more well-heeled protesters

North Korea demanded that South Korea and the United States halt annual military drills due in February and March, saying they were a direct provocation, a statement that suggested a re-run of a sharp escalation in tension last year. But in a bizarre twist, it also offered a Lunar New Year truce in hostilities, provocations and mutual criticism. In 2013, North Korea said it would retaliate against any hostile moves by striking at the United States, Japan and South Korea, triggering a military buildup on the Korean peninsula and months of fiery rhetoric. The reclusive North has regularly denounced annual drills such as "Key Resolve" and "Ulchi-Freedom-Guardian" staged by South Korea and United States as a prelude to invasion. "We sternly warn the U.S. and the South Korean authorities to stop the dangerous military exercises which may push the situation on the peninsula and the north-south ties to a catastrophe," the North's KCNA state news quot

A critic of President Francois Hollande and France's ruling elite dumped tonnes of horse manure in front of the national parliament building in Paris on Thursday in a pungent protest against French politics. _0"> "Out with Hollande and the entire political class. Long live the Sixth Republic," read a message on the side of the man's articulated truck. France's present-day Fifth Republic was founded in 1958 with Charles de Gaulle its first president. The unnamed perpetrator was detained by police before he was able to shed all of his truckload of dung at the steps of the Bourbon Palace, the building that houses the lower house of parliament on the edge of the Seine river in downtown Paris, witnesses said. Authorities began a mass clear-up operation. Hollande, hit by magazine allegations of a love affair with an actress and battling to restore the fortunes of Europe's second-largest economy, has the lowest popularity ratings of any leader in modern-

A suicide car bomber killed three people in a Hezbollah stronghold on Lebanon's northern border with Syria on Thursday, the latest sign of the Syrian civil war's creeping impact on its small Mediterranean neighbor. The blast came as a court at The Hague began hearings on the 2005 killing of Lebanese statesman Rafik al-Hariri. The trial in absentia of four Hezbollah members, once billed as demonstrating a new start for Lebanon under the rule of law, has been overshadowed by violence spilling over from Syria. The car bomb went off near a local government building in the centre of Hermel, at the northern end of the Bekaa Valley, an area populated mainly by Shi'ite Muslims from whom Hezbollah draws its support. The explosion shattered windows and damaged nearby buildings, witnesses said. A Reuters photographer saw body parts strewn across the street and people with shrapnel wounds in the area of the blast. Hospitals were calling on people to give blood. There was no imme

Best Buy Co ( id="symbol_BBY.N_0"> BBY.N ) shares tumbled about 30 percent on Thursday after the world's largest consumer electronics chain reported disappointing holiday sales and warned of a bigger-than-expected decline in quarterly operating margins. The company blamed intense discounting by rivals, tight supplies of phones and high-end tablets industrywide, and weak traffic in December. The news, which knocked off almost $4 billion of Best Buy's market value, was the latest evidence that holiday sales at many chains came at the expense of profit. "It just seems that the promotions did not drive incremental sales, that opening on Thanksgiving just added costs," Janney Capital Markets analyst David Strasser said. Adding to the pressure on Best Buy, he said, was the "promotional cadence of troubled retailers" like Sears ( id="symbol_SHLD.O_1"> SHLD.O ), Toys R Us Inc and smaller electronics chains. Best Buy cut prices sharpl

Goldman Sachs Group Inc reported a 21 percent drop in quarterly profit on Thursday as revenue from fixed-income trading fell in what Chief Executive Lloyd C. Blankfein described as "a somewhat challenging environment." The bank's bond trading revenue slid 11 percent, adjusted for an accounting charge, and was greater than those of competitors that have already posted fourth-quarter results. It is also a blow to a bank that counts bond trading, including fixed income, currency, and commodities, as one of its biggest businesses. While Goldman is still a big player in bond markets, fixed-income trading revenue fell to 25.3 percent of total revenue in 2013 from 48 percent at its peak in 2009, including accounting charges. The bond market began to soften in the middle of last year as investors prepared for the U.S. Federal Reserve to scale back on its bond-buying stimulus, and longer-term yields started rising. Trading income across Wall Street has been hurt by the move.