Phil Orlins knows everything about producing TV in three dimensions. The ESPN producer has captured the undulating greens of Augusta National and the flying motor bikes of the X-Games for ESPN's 3-D channel. But he can only guess how well his shows resonate with viewers. That's because 3-D audiences are so small they can't be measured by Nielsen's rating system.

"The feedback on The Masters was fast and furious. You could go on Twitter at any moment, and there'd be comments coming in every minute about 3-D coverage," said Orlins while giving a tour of a production truck at this summer's X-Games. "But then you go to some other events where it's pretty quiet."

An Alaska scientist whose observations of drowned polar bears helped galvanize the global warming movement has been reprimanded for improper release of government documents.

An Interior Department official said emails released by Charles Monnett were cited by a federal appeals court in decisions to vacate approval by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management of an oil and gas company's Arctic exploration plan.

They slink through the woods in camouflage and face paint, armed with tire irons, screwdrivers and hoes. They're the new breed of U.S. ginseng diggers, hoping to feed rising Asian demand for the increasingly rare — and expensive — plant's roots.

Police say more diggers are pushing into the back country in search of wild ginseng, ripping up even the smallest plants and ignoring property lines.

The road to heaven is paved with more than good intentions for Germany's 24 million Catholics. If they don't pay their religious taxes, they will be denied sacraments, including weddings, baptisms and funerals.

A decree issued last week by the country's bishops cast a spotlight on the longstanding practice in Germany and a handful of other European countries in which governments tax registered believers and then hand over the money to the religious institutions.

A joke by the satirical newspaper The Onion appears to have gotten lost in translation.

An Iranian news agency picked up — as fact — a story from the paper about a supposed survey showing an overwhelming majority of rural white Americans would rather vote for Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad than President Barack Obama. But it was made up, like everything in the just-for-laughs newspaper, which is headquartered in Chicago.

An attorney said Friday he believes a drug-induced psychosis was responsible for an outburst by an actor that police say ended in the slaying of his landlady before the former "Sons of Anarchy" cast member plunged to his death.

Johnny Lewis, 28, had been arrested three times during the past year and officials were concerned about his mental health and the danger he posed to others. His lawyer Jonathan Mandel, who represented Lewis in the criminal cases, said drugs may have been a factor in the actor's final hours.

The Saudi Arabian deputy foreign minister said Friday that Security Council inaction on the Syrian civil war gave the Bashar Assad regime "a green light" to attack his own people.

Abdulaziz bin Abdullah told the U.N. General Assembly on Friday that the Assad regime was "in a race against time to accomplish its objectives using the most advanced means of killing and destruction."

Arnold Schwarzenegger says his wife, Maria Shriver, was told to "snap out of it" by her mother for her attempts to persuade him against running for California governor in 2003, a conversation that ultimately opened the door to his successful candidacy.

Eunice Shriver told her daughter that her husband would be "angry for the rest of his life" if she stopped his ambitions, Schwarzenegger writes in his new autobiography, "Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story."

German health authorities said at least 4,000 children have fallen ill with vomiting and diarrhea after eating food from school canteens and daycare centers.

The Robert Koch-Institut stated it was alerted to a sudden surge in gastroenteritis cases that began late Tuesday in Berlin and surrounding regions.

The countdown is on for skydiver Felix Baumgartner.

In just two weeks, Baumgartner will attempt to go supersonic when he jumps from a record altitude of 23 miles over New Mexico. Project managers announced Tuesday the feat will take place Oct. 8.