A new research study investigating the interpretation of facial expressions by individuals shows how cultural boundaries between them affects their psychology. Researchers found that while Americans tend to judge emotional status of a person by looking at the mouth, Japanese are likely to do so by looking into the eyes. The research team led by Masaki Yuki, a behavioral scientist at Hokkaido University in Japan, confirmed the hypothesis using two studies - one using emoticons and one using manipulated photographs of real people.

Police in Napier, New Zealand were amused when a middle-aged woman called up crying to report a theft of cannabis plants she had been growing in buckets at her home. The 45-year-old woman's main grudge was that the plant theft was the fourth from her property in North Island in the past four years. She was emotional and in tears when police reached her home.

"One can't go against the word of God" - the idiom has held its good for a duck named Perky. After enduring being shot and then having her presumed dead body thrown in a kitchen fridge, the ring-necked bird has once again shown her lust for life on the operation table. The one-pound female duck had stopped breathing Saturday while the vets were performing a surgery on her to repair gunshot damage to one wing. But the fowl suddenly came back when veterinarian David Hale of the Cross Creek Animal Hospital performed a CPR on the duck, Noni Beck of the Goose Creek Wildlife Sanctuary told the AP.

A study to determine the worst sound in the world ranks the noise of someone vomiting at the top. The study was done by Trevor Cox, a professor of acoustic engineering at Salford University that tallied opinions on 34 sounds at the website www. sound101. org. The online study lasted for a year and garnered 1. 1m votes. Results showed that microphone feedback was considered the second worst sound. Crying babies and the scrapes and squeaks of train wheels came in a tie for the third place.

Damon Mootoo heard so many horror stories about New York that he refused to ask for directions when he got lost. The man, who was new to the city, remained lost for five days. Mootoo, 32, was shivering on a sidewalk begging for water when Michael Bharath took notice. He made Mootoo a sandwich and drove him back to his brother's house in South Jamaica, Queens where he was staying.