A federal appeals court upholds the city's ban on pet racing pigeons, rejecting claims by some enthusiasts the ordinance is unconstitutional. According to the American Racing Pigeon Union, the ban makes Chicago the only large U. S. city outlawing pet pigeons.

An 85-year-old Florida man is the world's oldest hang-glider pilot. Goss picked up hang gliding at 54, and at 85, he is still flying at least once a month at Wallaby Ranch near Orlando. Earlier this year, he earned a spot in the Guinness World Records. The former dentist taught himself to fly by jumping off beach dunes after reading about the sport in Reader's Digest.

North Korea's communist government urges women in the country to sport traditional Korean clothes instead of pants. Joson Yeosung (Woman) magazine says, "Keeping alive our dress style is a very important political issue to adhere to specific national cultural traditions at a time when the U. S. imperialists are maneuvering to spread the rotten bourgeois lifestyle inside North Korea. "

The internationally known mascot of the McDonald's fast food chain is undergoing an "extreme makeover" in Japan. Ronald McDonald is being replaced by a woman sporting a bikini and high heels. The change is part of a global effort by McDonald's to promote healthy living and to emphasize other products rather than burgers and chips.

A sport utility vehicle rammed into an operating room toward the end of a cataract procedure while it was trying to pull out of a parking space in New Jersey. No one was injured, but Dr. Bernard Spier says that if the accident had happened moments earlier, it could have hurt the patient's eye, The Associated Press