Santa Claus has braved the sticky heat of the Amazon rainforest this weekend, taking two boats to bring gifts to the children of a small village near the Brazilian city of Manaus.

Two little piggies will not become Christmas Eve roast pork thanks to a holiday pardon they received from a Florida mayor.

NORAD’s Santa tracker is a Christmas tradition that’s become nearly global in scope.

Fifty years later, a man who grew up in suburban Detroit tried to return a very overdue baseball book to his boyhood library.

Santa Clauses are coming to town.

Googly eyes have been appearing on sculptures around the central Oregon city of Bend.

A New Jersey lawmaker from part of the state where several mysterious drones have been spotted in recent week says the devices appear to avoid detection by traditional methods.

Britain's spy agency is celebrating the festive season with a riddle wrapped in an enigma inside a mystery.

A New Zealand man playing his first-ever competitive Scrabble game in Spanish, a language he doesn’t speak, has won the board game’s Spanish-language world title.

For months, a fugitive dog known as Scrim has transfixed the city of New Orleans.

It’s not just soccer anymore.

Depending on who you ask, the results of the 2024 U.S. presidential election rattled the country or were cause for celebration.

Couples who look awkward on skates have gotten a chance to celebrate their cute clumsiness in a Rocky and Adrian look-alike contest at Philadelphia’s RockyFest.

The Southeastern Conference championship game will not feature another mascot showdown.

The oldest-known wild bird in the world has laid an egg at the ripe age of 74, her first in four years.

Did you have a “Brat summer” this year.

A cryptocurrency entrepreneur who had bought a piece of conceptual art consisting of a simple banana, duct-taped to a wall, for $6.2 million last week ate the fruit in Hong Kong on Friday.

In the remotest reaches of Alaska, there’s no relying on DoorDash to have Thanksgiving dinner delivered.

The world’s oldest man has died in England at age 112.

Police thought a shoe thief was on the loose at a kindergarten in southwestern Japan, until a security camera caught the furry culprit in action.

One Georgia city will welcome 2025 with a larger-than-average bang.

A Spanish court has upheld a ruling that a supermarket worker was unlawfully fired for having eaten a croquette that was going to be thrown away after not having been sold from the store’s deli section.

Eagle lovers around the world who were crushed when the nest of a Minnesota pair and their chick collapsed on live video last year will get a when a new eagle camera goes live this week.

Authorities say only six monkeys are still on the loose after dozens escaped earlier this month from a South Carolina compound that breeds the primates for medical research.

Walk into any supermarket and you can usually buy a banana for less than $1.

New York City politicians are calling on Whoopi Goldberg to apologize for suggesting on air that a local bakery had declined to make The View co-host a batch of desserts for her birthday because of her political beliefs.

A New Hampshire animal shelter has an enor-mouse problem on its hands.

Authorities say Just eight monkeys remain free from the group who broke out of a South Carolina compound that breeds the primates for medical research.

California is seeing its share of bear break-ins.

An endangered sea turtle has been released into the Gulf of Mexico after being found off the coast of the Netherlands, 5,000 miles from its home.

Authorities say two monkeys have been returned to a South Carolina compound that breeds the animals for medical research.

Authorities say five more monkeys have been returned to a South Carolina compound that breeds the animals for medical research.

More than a 1,000 mariachis have gathered in Mexico City’s main plaza, strumming guitars and singing classics like “Cielito Lindo” to end a mariachi congress celebrating the musical form.

Authorities say more than half of the monkeys bred for medical research that escaped from a compound in South Carolina have been recovered unharmed.

England cricketing great Ian Botham was saved by his former Ashes rival Merv Hughes after a fall into crocodile-infested waters while on a fishing trip in northern Australia.

Officials say one of 43 monkeys bred for medical research that escaped a compound in South Carolina has been recovered unharmed.

Hundreds of Bolivian devotees have arrived at the municipal cemetery of La Paz carrying human skulls adorned with flowers for the Ñatitas festival.

Authorities say 43 monkeys bred for medical research that escaped a compound in South Carolina have been spotted in the woods near a fence surrounding the site and that workers are using food to try to recapture them.

A police chief in South Carolina says there is no “almost no danger” to the public after 43 monkeys escaped from a compound used for medical research.

A pair of ruby slippers worn by Judy Garland in “The Wizard of Oz” is on the auction block nearly two decades after a thief stole the iconic shoes, convinced they were adorned with real jewels.

The Edinburgh Zoo has launched a cuteness contest between Haggis, its newborn pygmy hippo, and Moo Deng, the adorable mini hippopotamus that became a viral sensation at a Thailand zoo this summer.

A woman who pleaded guilty to dressing as a clown and in 1990 murdering the wife of a man she later married has been released from a Florida prison.

During the Day of the Dead celebrations that take place in late October and early November, Latin Americans honor their departed loved ones by setting up altars adorned with food, flowers and photographs.

Pets are not forgotten during Mexico’s famed Day of the Dead celebrations, when even Fido and Tiger get a place at the altars Mexican families set up to honor their deceased loved ones, complete with flowers, candles and photographs.

A winged creature from Oregon has been crowned this year's winner in the annual “Bat Beauty Contest.”.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear showed off his Halloween spirit Thursday.

A New York man who turned a rescued squirrel into a social media star called Peanut is pleading with state authorities to return his beloved pet after they seized it during a raid.

Perched on two fingers on the roof of an art gallery in Wellington, New Zealand, the giant sculpture of a hand has loomed over the city for five years.

For the first time since 1938, children in Des Moines, Iowa, will go trick-or-treating on Halloween.

A rare dime whose whereabouts had remained a mystery since the late 1970s has sold for just over $500,000.

Actor Timothée Chalamet made a surprise appearance at his own look-alike contest in Lower Manhattan.

British chef Jamie Oliver is on the case of the stolen cheddar.

Thieves with a nose for fine cheese have pulled off a massive cheddar ripoff in London.

A special kind of beauty contest featuring bats kicked off in the lead-up to Halloween.

A makeshift aquarium that popped up this summer in a puddle beneath a leaky New York City fire hydrant is no more.

Travelers leaving the New Zealand city of Dunedin will have to keep their emotional farewells brief after a new three-minute time limit was imposed on goodbye hugs in the airport’s drop-off area in order to prevent lingering cuddles from causing traffic jams.

A British chestnut-whacking champion has been cleared of cheating after an investigation into alleged malfeasance at the World Conker Championships.

A judge in northern Greece has imposed a suspended one-month prison sentence on a man convicted of disturbing his neighbors by repeatedly sneaking into their properties to smell their shoes.

The World Conker Championships says it's investigating allegations of cheating after this year’s men’s winner was found to have a steel chestnut in his pocket.

A Russian man has been rescued in the Sea of Okhotsk after surviving for two months in an inflatable boat that lost its engine, but his brother and nephew have died.

A Minnesota horticulture teacher has remained the reigning champion of an annual pumpkin-weighing contest in Northern California.

An annual event in Maine involving mud, beer and cash has once again drawn dozens of eager competitors.

Witnesses could bear-ly believe the surprise visitor that appeared at the Connecticut governor’s estate.

A woman from China has pleaded guilty to attempting to smuggle 29 eastern box turtles, a protected species, across a Vermont lake into Canada by kayak.

New Zealand’s Defense Minister Judith Collins has decried what she called misogynistic online comments about the woman commander of a navy ship which ran aground, caught fire and sank off the coast of Samoa on Sunday.

A Washington state woman had to flee her property after 50 to 100 raccoons descended on it and were acting aggressively.

The owner of a water buffalo that ran loose in a Des Moines, Iowa, suburb for days in August has pleaded guilty for having an animal at large.

The question of whether a 2-year-old beaver named Nibi can stay with the rescuers she has known since she was a baby or must be released into the wild as winter approaches was resolved when the Massachusetts governor stepped in to protect Nibi.

Police and firefighters in New Hampshire have responded to an unusual call — a moose trapped in a backyard swimming pool.

It’s tarantula mating season on the Colorado plains, when male spiders scurry out of their burrows in search of a mate.

Whether a 2-year-old beaver named Nibi gets to stay with the rescuers she has known since she was a baby or must be released into the wild as winter approaches in Massachusetts has ended up in court — and caused such an uproar that even the governor has weighed in.

The claim to Shohei Ohtani’s potentially lucrative 50th home run ball grew more complicated this week, with a second fan filing a lawsuit asserting he had possession of the historic baseball.

Voting has started in the annual Fat Bear Week contest at Alaska’s Katmai National Park and Preserve.

Actor Damian Lewis has driven a flock of sheep across the River Thames in homage to a centuries-old tradition.

Earth will have a temporary “mini moon” for two months.

Bugs can't seem to get enough of Detroit-area libraries.

A gray cat living an extraordinary life of visits to the beach and trips to the lake went on his biggest adventure alone: traveling hundreds of miles from Wyoming to California.

Authorities say an 8-year-old girl took an SUV from her Ohio home and drove for miles to a store where she was later found unharmed.

A photograph by a naturalist captured a seemingly bewildered seal in the mouth of a humpback whale after the giant marine mammal unintentionally gulped it.

The winner of the Florida Python Challenge removed 20 Burmese pythons from the Everglades.

Fenway Park has the Ted Williams seat.

The hoiho or yellow-eyed penguin won New Zealand's annual Bird of the Year vote, after a fierce contest without the foreign interference and controversies that have upset the country's avian elections before.

A cat aptly named Drifter is safe at home after sneaking out and getting trapped in a sewer for nearly eight weeks.

Police in Denmark say a 29-year-old man faces a whopping 86 preliminary charges for reckless driving.

A study that explores the feasibility of using pigeons to guide missiles and one that looks at the swimming abilities of dead fish were among the winners of this year’s Ig Nobels, the prize for comical scientific achievement.

First-year veterinary students in Hungary are being joined by two full-grown horses in their lecture hall for the first anatomy lesson of their academic careers.

Many of the expected conventions of music biopics are present in “Piece by Piece,” about the producer-turned-pop star Pharrell Williams, and “Better Man,” about the British singer Robbie Williams.

A young golden eagle attacked a toddler in Norway in what an ornithologist says is likely the same bird’s fourth such attack on humans in the past week.

College football players aspire to play in bowl games.

Three sisters from Ohio who inherited a dime kept in a bank vault for more than 40 years knew it had some value.

A man suspected of going on a three-hour shooting rampage in Northern California and killing 81 animals, including miniature horses, goats and chickens, pleaded not guilty to animal cruelty and other charges.

There's an army taking to Mexico City's streets — the Tree Army.

Newly listed for sale in Southern California’s notoriously pricey realty market: half a house for half a million dollars.

An ultra swimmer's attempt to cross Lake Michigan is over after 40 hours.

An extreme swimmer is back in Lake Michigan trying to cross one of the Great Lakes from Michigan to Wisconsin.

A white beluga whale named “Hvaldimir” that was first spotted in Norway not far from Russian waters with a harness that ignited rumors he may be a Moscow spy has been found dead.

Ohio’s Division of Cannabis Control has proposed fines totaling more than $200,000 against five businesses for violating the state’s advertising rules for marijuana sellers.

Late French film icon Alain Delon once suggested he wanted his beloved Malinese dog Louba buried with him.

Germany’s navy says there was "no deeper message” in the choice to blast the famed Imperial March — Darth Vader’s theme song in the “Star Wars” films — from one of its warships as it cruised down the River Thames through London.

A college town in Mississippi temporarily closed a street after a delivery truck dropped dozens of cases of beer.