NEW YORK Want to look down on the rich and famous? Go eye to eagle-eye with a winged predator? See the sun rise over Queens? How better to do this than from a balloon 30 stories above Central Park?

SAO PAULO, Brazil An 11-year old boy is in Brazil's media spotlight after sinking his teeth into the neck of a dog that attacked him. Local newspapers reported on Thursday that Gabriel Almeida was playing in his uncle's backyard in the city of Belo Horizonte when a pit bull named Tita lunged at him and bit him in the left arm.

TERRELL, N.C. After catching one of two people wanted in a series of break-ins, deputies in North Carolina let their fingers do the chasing to catch a second suspect.

CLARKS SUMMIT, Pa. Picking up hitchhikers can be risky, but this one in northeast Pennsylvania was a bird of a different feather. Jerry Dimick and a friend were driving along Route 307 near Clarks Summit on Wednesday when they spotted a peacock standing by the edge of the road.

PORTLAND, Ore. Portland police are not above the parking laws, even if they're hungry.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand A family court judge in New Zealand has had enough with parents giving their children bizarre names here, and did something about it.

NEW YORK The bubble might have burst for off-Broadway's "Gazillion Bubbles Show." Someone has stolen the show's specialized soapy bubble solution, which takes two months to make.

MELBOURNE, Australia A pet rabbit is credited with saving a couple from a fire that swept through their home in the southern city of Melbourne.

OMAHA, Neb. Humane society workers have found 117 cats, a raccoon and a rabbit in a north Omaha house. The discovery came Wednesday after Council Bluffs, Iowa, police caught the 54-year-old woman who lives at the house reportedly stealing cat food. Officials say she smelled like cat urine.

MILFORD, Mass. Dozens of pairs of pantyhose have been left near a Milford school bus stop - causing sheer annoyance in the neighborhood. The pantyhose - sometimes new, sometimes used - has been left on Camp Street for more than two years. They're almost always black and queen sized.

GREEN BAY, Wis. Bob and Leona Ehrfurth say the noise that's been plaguing them for two years sounds something like a rumbling motor, with a subtle vibration that won't quit. Then it stops - especially when they try to show city officials or acoustic experts what they're hearing.

NEWARK, N.J. Prosecutors say a Harley-Davidson motorcycle that was stolen nearly 34 years ago in Rhode Island has surfaced in central New Jersey. The 1971 Sportster was purchased on eBay for $2,400 by Michael Meistrell of Cranford.

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. A Minnesota high school teacher has lasted 20 hours on a carnival ride to win the Ride the Tide Challenge at the Mall of America.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. State police say they arrested a man early Tuesday whose blood alcohol level was 0.491 percent - the highest ever recorded in Rhode Island for someone who wasn't dead.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. State police say they arrested a man early Tuesday whose blood alcohol level was 0.491 percent - the highest ever recorded in Rhode Island for someone who wasn't dead.

ORANGEBURG, N.Y. A New York state report says a maintenance man who earned $100,000 last year working at a psychiatric center has been living for free in a paint shed on company grounds and even had his mail delivered there.

LEWISTON, Maine A man is having trouble sleeping since he found a python snake about 9 feet long under the engine of his pickup truck. Harley Burgess's shocking discovery Saturday is the second of its kind in less than a week in Maine.

LEBANON, Ind. A woman accidentally stabbed herself in the foot with a 3-foot-long sword while performing a Wiccan good luck ritual at a central Indiana cemetery.

SPOKANE, Wash. A porcupine that wandered onto the eastbound lanes of Interstate 90 in Spokane and found itself trapped has been rescued by a Washington state transportation worker with a very long-handled shovel.

COOKEVILLE, Tenn. Three men suspected of stealing from a Goodwill store in Cookeville ran out of gas before making it out of the parking lot, police say.

CENTERVILLE, Utah A piece of string cheese made to look like a bomb forced the temporary closure of a Centerville grocery store. Police were called to Dick's Market over the weekend for a report that a someone had left a device covered in duct tape near a dry ice cooler.

MONROE, Wash. Police say a trail of pillows and backpacks led to two sleeping men who were arrested after a department store break-in. Kyle Burress, 25, and Allen Pierce, 27, have been charged with second-degree burglary.

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. A cable repairman fixing overhead lines in a cherry picker truck got a lift he wasn't expecting. Police said a Bakersfield man stole the Brighthouse Networks truck on Saturday while 50-year-old Curtis Bartell was elevated 25 feet in the air.

KOKOMO, Ind. A pastor brought out a dirt bike during a church service to demonstrate the concept of unity. Now he's demonstrating the concept of healing.

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. Two practical jokers are behind bars for setting their passed-out drinking buddy's crotch ablaze while boozing in Grover Beach. Matthew Craig Pillers and Jack Brent Nicholas Keiffer pleaded no contest to a felony great bodily injury charge.

PLAINVILLE, Conn. Plainville police have arrested a Portland woman, accusing her of trying to retaliate against her former boss by having electricity cut off to his home. Police say a 33-year-old woman was fired June 25 from her job at a Glastonbury insurance-sales agency.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. Ready for the latest in spa pampering? Prepare to dunk your tootsies in a tank of water and let tiny carp nibble away.

GRAND ISLAND, N.Y. A western New York man who police say tore off his off clothes and fled after being pulled over in a routine traffic stop is now wearing a jail uniform.

COPENHAGEN, Denmark It's July - and the Christmas tree is lit, bells are jingling and jolly elves are doing "yula-hoops" on stage.

KEY WEST, Fla. A white-bearded Florida man won an Ernest Hemingway look-alike contest, a highlight of a festival that ended Sunday honoring the late Nobel Prize-winning author.