And Finally

Scotland's Highland Council has dropped plans to require prior authorisation for bagpipes at funerals after an outcry from pipers. The measure was included in draft burial and crematorium management rules put out to a public consultation but has now been abandoned, The Times reports.

A woman who allegedly posed as a school student to promote her Instagram account has been charged with trespassing. According to police, 28-year-old Audrey Nicole Francisquini walked into American Senior High School in Miami, Florida dressed as a student and told security she was looking for the reg

Pokémon trading cards have been pulled from the shelves of one of the biggest US retailers in a bid to protect staff from rowdy fans. The resale value of Pokémon cards has sky-rocketed in the past year, leading to tense confrontations in stores, The Guardian reports.

A defendant in a criminal case has been sharply rebuked by a judge after logging into a remote court hearing with the offensive name "Buttf*cker 3000". The man, real name Nathaniel Saxton, was appearing remotely before a district court in the US state of Michigan on drug offence charges yesterday.

Police officers have gone on strike over a shortage of trousers. Officers in El Puerto de Santa Maria in the south of Spain say they should have received new service trousers in 2016.

Iraqi prank shows that terrified celebrities with fake suicide bombers and staged kidnappings have been taken off the air by regulators. Talqat Tony (Tony's Bullet) and Tanb Raslan (Raslan's Shooting) went too far and were deemed to breach broadcast rules, the BBC reports.

A state senator in Ohio appeared in a Zoom meeting with a fake background while driving – on the same day a distracted driving bill was introduced. Andrew Brenner used a virtual home office background, but his seatbelt was still visible in his video feed.

A farmer accidentally annexed part of France to his native Belgium after moving a 200-year-old stone marking the border between the countries. The border marker has been in place since the border was first drawn up in 1819 and ratified in the Treaty of Kortrijk the following year.

German teenagers who planned a sophisticated heist to get their hands on school exam papers have received suspended sentences. Three pupils at a school in Bavaria spent months planning a night-time break-in to a safe in their headmaster's office.

Heavy metal band Twisted Sister has won a payout of nearly €1 million after an Australian politician ripped off the lyrics to "We're Not Gonna Take It" for his election campaign. Clive Palmer, a billionaire mining magnate whose right-wing United Australia Party failed to win a single seat in th

The NYPD has been forced to fire its robot dog, the New York Times reports. Digidog, developed by Boston Dynamics, was obtained on a contract worth $94,000.

A border guard service dog has received a national honour in Turkmenistan on its inaugural new state holiday. President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov has dedicated April 19th to the alabay, a symbol of national pride, Sky News reports.

A hand grenade discovered in a German forest, leading to a full-scale bomb disposal operation, has turned out to be a rubber sex toy. Police were alerted to the possible explosive after it was spotted by a woman jogging through the forest near the Bavarian city of Passau, DW reports.

A new law putting the US state of Georgia on daylight savings time all year round will reduce crime, officials have claimed. Governor Brian Kemp has signed Senate Bill 100, which provides that Georgia "shall observe daylight savings time year round as the standard time of the entire state".

A judge accused of selling judicial favours to the mafia had tens of thousands of euros stashed in his electrical sockets, Italian police have said. Judge Giuseppe De Benedictis was found to have around €60,000 (£52,000) in plastic bags stuffed behind his power switches, The Times reports