Japanese women are no longer the world's longest living, their longevity pushed down in part by last year's devastating earthquake and tsunami, according to a government report Thursday. The top of the global life expectancy rankings now belongs to Hong Kong women.

The annual report by Japan's health ministry said the expected lifespan for Japanese women slipped to 85.90 years in 2011 from 86.30 the year before, mainly due to disease and other natural causes of death. The life expectancy for men also declined slightly, from 79.55 to 79.44.

Argentina's iconic first lady Evita Peron was so loved or hated when she was alive that long after her death, passionate arguments about her character drowned out more serious efforts to examine her legacy.

Some historians say that only now, 60 years after Gen. Juan Domingo Peron's firebrand wife succumbed to cancer at the age of 33, are many beginning to consider how much her actions shaped the society they live in today.

Manchester City says captain Vincent Kompany has signed a six-year contract extension with the Premier League champions.

The Belgium central defender guided Man City to its first league title in 44 years and has played 161 games for the club since joining from German side Hamburg in 2008.

A 21-pound (9.5-kilogram) lobster caught off Cape Cod has found a new home at the New England Aquarium in Boston.

That's after a raffle for the lobster at Capt'n Elmer's Fish Market in Orleans, where it was caught July 14.

French officials said Wednesday that a helicopter crashed in southeastern France and that five people were killed.

Francis Mene, a security official for southern France, said the helicopter crashed while carrying out a test flight Wednesday deep in the Verdon Gorge, a popular hiking destination.

AC Milan Vice-President Adriano Galliani has opened the door to a return for Rossoneri icon Kaka from Real Madrid.

Kaka's days at Madrid appear to be numbered, and the Brazil star was left behind for Tuesday's friendly win against Real Oviedo.

A month long HIV blocker that women could use for protection without their partners knowing? Major new research is beginning in Africa to see whether a special kind of vaginal ring just might work.

Giving women tools to protect themselves when their partners won't use a condom is crucial for battling the AIDS epidemic. Women already make up half of the 34.2 million people worldwide living with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS; even more — 60 percent — in hard-hit Africa are women.

Scientists say there has been a freak event in Greenland this month: Nearly every part of the massive ice sheet that blankets the island suddenly started melting.

Even Greenland's coldest place showed melting. Records show that last happened in 1889 and occurs about once every 150 years.

A semi-official Iranian news agency says police hope to work with Facebook to fight cyber-crimes and pornography — a turnabout in Tehran's stance toward the social networking giant that it previously banned after activists used it as an organizing tool.

A Tuesday report by ISNA quotes Gen. Kamal Hadianfar, head of Iran's cyber-police, as saying the country is trying to remove pages on Facebook created by Iranian citizens that promote pornography and prostitution.

Brazil's well-heeled socialites swear by them. Legions of slum-dwellers from the country's hillside "favelas" don them almost every day. Minimum wage earners behind juice bar counters use them, as do newly minted millionaires and, alarmingly, construction workers.

In Brazil, literally everyone wears Havaianas, the now world-famous brand of rubber and plastic flip-flops that's celebrating its 50th birthday this year.