Reuters - An American competitive eater devoured a record 66 hotdogs in 12 minutes on Wednesday to win the July 4 annual Coney Island hotdog eating competition, defeating a six-time champion from Japan in a photo finish.

Reuters - Brazil's Marcelo Melo and Andre Sa entered the Wimbledon record books on Wednesday when they won the longest final set in championship history.

Reuters - Japan's first female defence minister vowed on Wednesday to strengthen ties with Tokyo's close security ally, the United States, and improve working conditions for women in the nation's military.

AP - Villagers in central China dug up a ton of dinosaur bones and boiled them in soup or ground them into powder for traditional medicine, believing they were from flying dragons and had healing powers.

Reuters - After 14 failed attempts at joining the United Nations using media campaigns and presidential appeals, Taiwan is turning to a local goth-style rock band backed by Ozzy Osbourne in its quest for membership to the world body.

Reuters - A Hong Kong woman who blinded her boyfriend in one eye in a fight six years ago has been jailed for jabbing a chopstick into his other eye, a newspaper reported on Wednesday.

AP - A fisherman looking to catch a catfish for dinner instead reeled in a fish that flashed its teeth and bit his knife. Jerry Melton, 46, was fishing in the Catawba River last week when he caught what state wildlife officials later identified as a piranha, a South American carnivorous fish that lives in freshwater.

Reuters - Scientists said that a lake in southern Chile that mysteriously disappeared last month developed a crack which allowed the water to drain away.

Reuters - A smoking ban took effect on Sunday at pubs and clubs in Australia's two most populous states, but it's the timing of the measure that's riling smokers the most.