The nation that gave the world counterfeit toys, fake toothpaste and poisoned pet food also gave 3 billion television viewers a bogus fireworks show of Olympic proportions Friday night, according to media reports Monday. The spectacular fireworks telecast to billions of viewers around the world at the end of the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics Friday night were largely faked using computer animation and the audience wasn't told, the Beijing Times newspaper revealed.

It's impossible to know which side drew first blood. For as long as Wimbledon has existed, it has had to contend with the pigeons, invaders hell bent on dive-bombing players, leaving droppings on tables, and even taking a stroll on Centre Court. On Monday, tournament officials escalated the conflict by calling in special forces to cull the offensive. Wimbledon's usual security measures to keep the pigeon offensive at bay were just not cutting it on Monday. It was time to move to more extreme contingencies.

A castaway cocker spaniel and his companion, a macaw parrot, were rescued by Norwegian Cruise Line workers from a tiny atoll about 1,000 miles south of Hawaii. Snickers, an 8-month-old dog, survived 95 days adrift on a 48-foot boat then four months of being stranded on Fanning Island, one of 33 scattered coral atolls that make up the remote island nation of Kiribati.

A talkative parrot who was never lost for words, lost his will to talk after straying in the wilds of Cambridgeshire for four days. According to his owner Cedric Tunnell, 66, Harley, an African Grey, loves to call them "Mom" and "Dad", could recite his telephone number and was constantly talking all of the time.

More than three hundred parrots were rescued after Belarus border patrol intercepted a man who tried to smuggle the exotic birds out of the country onboard his bike. Border guards claim they intercepted the man just outside the border of Ukraine. However, the still unidentified would-be-smuggler jumped out of his bike and fled to a nearby forest when the border guards tried stopping him.