Prosecutors won convictions against three men for raping a 3-year-old girl in 2005, one of the men is the child's father and the other two are family friends. The child's mother earlier pleaded guilty to child exploitation charges and is serving a 10-year sentence, the girl is being cared for by her maternal grandmother, who was the first to report the abuse after the child complained that she had been injured.

Health officials in a Montana county issued a health advisory after the mother of two elementary school student brought a dead bat into an elementary school for a demonstration and allowed about 90 students to touch it. The mother reportedly found the dead bat in a cat's mouth, thought the bat was interesting, brought it into school and gave presentations on the bat in five classrooms, allowing students to touch the bat and giving them disinfectant wipes for their hands afterward.

A religious leader in Pakistan has issued a fatwa or religious opinion condemning President Asif Ali Zardari for flirting with the U. S. Republican vice presidential candidate during a meeting. The fatwa of cleric Maulana Abdul Ghafar, a prayer leader at radical mosque Lal Masjid in Islamabad, branded as indecent, un-Islamic and unbecoming of a head of state Zardari's gesture to Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK) while shaking hands with her at the United Nations headquarters last week.

A Sharon, Mass. man expects the giant pumpkin he has been growing in his back yard to tip the scales at a record 1,800 pounds when it is weighed on Oct. 11. Steve Connolly reportedly planted the squash on May 1 and pollinated it on July 3.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon took a solar-powered cab to work on Friday to raise awareness about climate change and to promote environmentally-friendly technologies. The ride on the Swiss-built Solartaxi took Ban from his home in New York to the UN Secretariat building. Louis Palmer, the Solartaxi's inventor, drove him to his office.