NEW YORK (Reuters) - Almost half of U.S. workers do not respect their boss and only half believe they are competent, according to an online survey released on Friday.

BEIJING (Reuters) - The world's tallest man, China's Bao Xishun, became the world's tallest father this week with the birth of his first child, a boy whose initial height seems a compromise between his gigantic dad and average-sized mum.

PARIS (Reuters) - A dropped 'h' landed English-speaking French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner in trouble on Sunday after he was mistakenly quoted as saying Israel could gobble up Iran if it wanted to.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - U.S. researchers have found a way to make efficient silicon-based solar cells that are flexible enough to be rolled around a pencil and transparent enough to be used to tint windows on buildings or cars.

CANBERRA (Reuters) - The parents of a 7-year-old boy who broke into an Australian outback zoo and fed a string of small animals to its resident crocodile are likely to be sued after police said the boy was too young to be held responsible.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Reptiles, monkeys, rodents and other exotic pets are growing in popularity but should be discouraged in homes with small children or people with immune system problems, according to a report published on Monday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A researcher who figured out that Coke explodes sperm and scientists who discovered that people will happily eat stale chips if they crunch loudly enough won alternative "Ig Nobel" prizes Thursday.

BERLIN (Reuters) - Wild boars are breeding at a huge rate in Germany and wreaking greater havoc than in any other European country by destroying crops, killing pets and even attacking people, according to a new study.

CANBERRA (Reuters) - The parents of a 7-year-old boy who broke into an Australian outback zoo and fed a string of small animals to its resident crocodile are likely to be sued after police said the boy was too young to be held responsible.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Playboy magazine is offering a new way to lose your shirt on Wall Street.

BANGKOK (Reuters) - An underdog in Sunday's election for governor of Bangkok punched and kicked a television journalist Thursday, saying he was provoked by tough questions during a live interview.

HELSINKI (Reuters) - An Internet game in which players roam a school and kill kindergarten students with a shotgun has been pulled from a Finnish children's gaming site one week after the country's worst school shooting.

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea plans to help obese children pay for health club membership and other activities that can help them lose weight, an official said on Wednesday.

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Armed men stole five small planes from a private airstrip in the northwestern Mexican state of Sinaloa on Tuesday by overpowering a police officer and flying away, security forces said.

BERLIN (Reuters) - A German man became so angry in an argument with a taxi driver over parking that he struck him on the head with a machete and chopped off the man's finger.

BERLIN (Reuters) - A German man became so angry in an argument with a taxi driver over parking that he struck him on the head with a machete and chopped off the man's finger.

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, already on the defensive amid charges of plagiarism, faced the prospect of fresh embarrassment Wednesday over a new book that paints an unflattering portrait of his former foreign minister Maxime Bernier.

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea plans to help obese children pay for health club membership and other activities that can help them lose weight, an official said on Wednesday.

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Armed men stole five small planes from a private airstrip in the northwestern Mexican state of Sinaloa on Tuesday by overpowering a police officer and flying away, security forces said.

VENICE (Reuters) - A proposal to turn the lagoon city of Venice into a Disney-style theme park has won a prize from a famed Venetian academy, even though it rejected the idea.