And Finally

Prosecutors who brought down the hammer on late taxpayers have complained that their own pay is now extremely late. The local prosecutor's office in St Louis County, Missouri has been owed around $54,000 (around €50,000 or £42,000) for months.

Jesus was not opposed to the death penalty, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church has claimed. Patriarch Kirill of Moscow told veterans of Russia's illegal war on Ukraine that Christ had "suffered an undeserved execution" but never condemned executions altogether, Novaya Gazeta reports.

An American cyclist is taking legal action after being struck and injured by an ambulance, which took him to hospital and then sent him a bill for nearly $2,000. William Hoesch, 71, is seeking $997,000 (around €930,000 or £775,000) from Columbia River Fire & Rescue in Oregon in compen

An octogenarian who was attacked with a machete after knocking on the wrong door by mistake managed to fend off his attacker with a pair of nunchucks. The would-be victim told police that he knocked on the door in Youngstown, Ohio and heard an irate man shout that he had the wrong apartment.

An untrained law student enjoyed the rare opportunity to conduct a 60-person orchestra following a social media appeal. Ella Eroniemi, 22, responded to a post from Finnish national broadcaster Yle seeking a member of the public with no experience of conducting to try conducting the Radio Symphony Or

Chinese government officials are reportedly cold-calling women to urge them to get pregnant. The bizarre scheme forms part of the Chinese government's efforts to reverse a decline in the country's birth rate, the South China Morning Post reports.

A rare copyright exemption has been granted by US authorities to allow McDonald's restaurants to repair their notoriously unreliable McFlurry machines. Franchise owners have complained that the machines have a "digital lock" preventing third-party repairs from being carried out.

A Russian court has slapped Google with a fine of around $20 decillion – thousands of times more than the entire world's GDP. The preposterous penalty arises from a years-long court case brought by Russian TV channels which have been banned from YouTube since 2020, partly as a result of US san

One of the world's largest banks is suing customers who believed they had discovered an "infinite money glitch". Thousands of people may have taken advantage of the so-called glitch, which was actually a form of cheque fraud which briefly became a viral sensation on TikTok and other social media pla

A motorist has been fined after being caught driving in a dedicated carpool lane with a plastic skeleton in the passenger seat. The Halloween decoration, spooky enough in itself, was also wearing a mask resembling that of Ghostface in the Scream horror film series.

A pizzeria owner has been arrested after it emerged the best-selling item on his menu came with a side of cocaine. Customers who ordered "pizza No. 40" from the unnamed pizzeria in Düsseldorf received both pizza and drugs at their door, DW reports.

Elon Musk is being sued by the production company behind Blade Runner 2049 for allegedly using the film to promote his new "Cybercab". Alcon Entertainment alleges that it turned down a formal request from an event organiser for the use of a still image from the 2017 film, but a virtually identical A

An English politician has called for a "crackdown on spitting" in order to "Make Britain Vaguely Civilised Again". Neil O'Brien, a Conservative MP who previously advised prime minister Theresa May, set out his proposals for an "orderly and civilised society" in a blog post yesterday.

An airport has capped goodbye hugs at a maximum of three minutes long. New signage at the drop-off section outside Dunedin Airport in New Zealand coldly states: "Max hug time 3 minutes. For fonder farewells please use the car park."

The Taliban has banned media outlets across large swathes of Afghanistan from broadcasting images of living beings. State media in the provinces of Takhar, Maidan Wardak and Kandahar have been told they can no longer air or publish images of people or animals, Newsweek reports.