China has wiped the smile off pro-democracy activists' faces by seizing 7,600 rolls of toilet paper featuring Hong Kong's pro-Beijing leader Leung Chun-ying pulling a series of ridiculous expressions.

Hong Kong's Democratic Party said the politically charged toilet paper, along with 20,000 packets of tissues, were to be sold at a popular Chinese New Year fair opening next week before the products were seized by mainland authorities.

Mexico's embattled President Enrique Pena Nieto has sparked a social media storm over an off-the-cuff remark he made about not getting applauded after announcing new anti-graft measures.

The phrase, which can be translated to "I already know they don't applaud" or "I already know you don't applaud," was said Tuesday at the end of his televised speech announcing an investigation into his family's purchase of luxurious homes from government contractors.

It appears the angry owl of Oregon has attacked another jogger.

Brad Hilliard says he was jogging early Monday near Bush's Pasture Park in the state's capital of Salem when he felt a scratch on the back of his neck and something swooped off with his favorite running cap.

An Alaska man who attempted to walk 50 miles between two villages at 35 below zero was found in good shape 4 miles from his goal by searchers called by his family.

Lawrence James, 52, wore heavy winter gear and carried water and a .22-caliber rifle. He walked nonstop for 15 hours and told searchers he didn't get cold on the long stroll between Birch Creek and Fort Yukon, the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner (http://bit.ly/1zkvL9I) reported.

A lawyer in Austria said Thursday he has written directly to Pope Francis seeking his intervention in a legal battle over the ringing of bells by Linz Cathedral every 15 minutes, even at night.

"Holy Father!" lawyer Wolfgang List's letter, seen by AFP, begins. "The bells in the Linz Cathedral clock tower ring every quarter of an hour at night. Between 10:00 pm and 6:00 am... they ring 222 times."

A Pentagon study from 2008 claimed that Russian President Vladimir Putin has Asperger's syndrome, giving him a need to exert "extreme control" when faced with crises, according to the report released Thursday.

Experts studying his movements and facial expressions in video footage theorized Putin's neurological development was disrupted in infancy, giving him a sense of physical imbalance and a discomfort with social interaction, according to the report by the Pentagon's internal think tank, the Office of Net Assessment.

Dogs aren't the only animals that vie for best in show. Hundreds of breeds of pigeons compete in their own version of the Westminster show, strutting on long, thick legs or fluttering curly, lacy feathers in their bid to be best bird.

These pigeons aren't the nuisance flocks that swarm food scraps at outdoor restaurants. They are genetically rich birds, including variations bred to look like turkeys or sound like trumpets, that drew thousands of enthusiasts — including ex-boxer and pigeon lover Mike Tyson — to the National Pigeon Association's 93rd annual Grand National Pigeon Show.

Firefighters have rescued a man who was trapped for about 18 hours upside down in a parked rail car in Seattle.

The fire department says the man apparently crawled into a chute on the car, which is designed to carry dry bulk materials.

A man who sometimes held his coat together with safety pins and had a long-time habit of foraging for firewood also had a knack for picking stocks — a talent that became public after his death when he bequeathed $6 million to his local library and hospital.

The investments made by Ronald Read, a former gas station employee and janitor who died in June at age 92, "grew substantially" over the years, said his attorney Laurie Rowell.

An Australian woman won the annual race up the Empire State Building's stairs for the sixth time, a record for the women's event.

Suzy Walsham dashed up 1,576 steps to the 86th-floor observatory in the Empire State Building Run-Up on Wednesday night in 12 minutes and 30 seconds.