Was it Brazil's caipirinha cocktail or did the head of the International Olympic Committee skip a major news conference in Rio de Janeiro on Wednesday because of jet lag? 

IOC President Thomas Bach failed to appear at the chief media event marking the one-year countdown to the 2016 Rio Olympics -- and initially officials gave no explanation. 

A man who claimed to be Tarzan has been arrested after he allegedly climbed a tree and tried to get into the monkey exhibit at a Southern California zoo.

A zookeeper called 911 Tuesday morning to report that a shirtless man plastered in mud had climbed about 20 feet into a tree at the bird exhibit at the Santa Ana Zoo.

A disoriented whale that turned up at a bustling Buenos Aires marina has nearly found its way back to the sea but is still stuck in fresh water, an official said Wednesday.

"It's at the mouth of the River Plate, in the area we call the ante-port. It's almost on its way. It's just one small step from swimming out to sea," a city hall spokesman told Agence France Presse.

The Belgian capital's emblematic Manneken Pis statue of a little boy taking a very public leak, beloved by millions of tourists, is getting a thorough examination to prove whether he is the real deal.

The small statue standing about 60 centimetres (23 inches) tall in a fountain in the heart of Brussels has suffered many indignities since he was first put up in the early 1600s, prompting the authorities to replace it with a replica in the 1960s.

As relations with western nations cool, Thailand's generals have visibly cosied up to China since seizing power in a coup last year.

But one Thai general appears to be especially enamored.

A German judge ordered two football hooligans who attacked a fan of a rival club and tore off his team gear to take the "painful" step of buying him new Bayern Munich merchandise, media reported Wednesday.

The judge in the southern city of Munich, Karin Jung, told the daily Bild that she presented the defendants, both supporters of the 1860 Munich team, with the choice of replacing the Bayern Munich gear or serving 15 months in jail.

Aristotle may have been more on the money than he realized in saying man is a political animal, according to research published Wednesday linking genes with liberal or conservative leanings.

Or, to be precise, a specific variant of one gene that would seem to exert greater sway over women than men.

New Yorkers living in the borough of Brooklyn woke to a strange sight on Tuesday -- a giant sinkhole had swallowed an enormous chunk of road.

The sinkhole, formed by the natural process of erosion, appeared shortly after 7 am at an intersection in the neighborhood of Sunset Park, according to the Fire Department.

A small British town has appointed its first resident jester in more than 700 years, naming him in an elaborate medieval ceremony.

Russel Erwood was officially dubbed Erwyd le Fol (French for 'fool') during an event in the main square in Conwy, north Wales, on Sunday which included falconry, knights and a parade.

A disoriented whale stunned onlookers and delighted tourists at Buenos Aires' bustling waterfront Monday, swimming alongside boats and periodically surfacing to the perplexed crowds.   

The small whale, whose species was not immediately confirmed, turned up well off its healthy course -- near the docks in glitzy Puerto Madero, the capital's upscale neighborhood.