And Finally

A life sentence prisoner has failed to persuade judges that he should be released because he "momentarily died" in his cell after falling ill. Benjamin Schreiber, who was convicted of first-degree murder in 1997 and sentenced to life in prison without parole, fell seriously ill in 2015 and had to be

A building in Moscow where 50,000 people were sentenced to death under Stalin is at the centre of a dispute over plans to turn it into a perfume shop and restaurant. Victims of Stalin’s Great Terror were taken to the three-storey court building on Nikolskaya Street, near the Kremlin to be told

A man from Donegal has avoided jail after agreeing to play the fiddle at an event for the man he assaulted. Francis Cunningham, 40, pleaded guilty at Glenties District Court to a charge of assault causing harm to Eamon McMahon, the Donegal Democrat reports.

The auction house Christie's is being sued over the $39 million sale of a large pink diamond named Princie, “a priceless treasure” from India. Descendants of an Italian senator claim that the stone was illegally sold to a member of the Qatari royal family and are seeking its return, The

Judges in the German capital have been forced to switch back to photocopiers and fax machines due to a catastrophic failure in their hopelessly outdated computer system. Computers at the Kammergericht, the highest state court for Berlin, are still using the Windows 95 operating system, which Microso

Unesco has apologised to an artist whose nude sculptures were covered up with a thong and a nappy. Stéphane Simon, 45, designed the nude statues in the pose of men and women taking a selfie with an invisible mobile phone.

McDonald's has apologised for promoting a Halloween dessert with the slogan "Sundae Bloody Sundae". The fast food chain said the ad campaign in Portugal was not meant to be an "insensitive reference to any historical event".

Police are searching for a man who allegedly attempted to open a bank account with a '$1 million' bill. Staff at a Pinnacle Bank branch in Lincoln, Nebraska, said he presented the bill to a teller and claimed it was real despite employees telling him no such bill exists, the Lincoln Journal-Star rep

A funeral ended on an unexpected high note after mourners unknowingly ingested hash cake. Police are investigating the culinary mix-up that led to the cannabis-infused confection being served at the restaurant hosting a funeral party after a burial.

A woman has been charged with falsely reporting her own murder after she posed as her husband and told his alleged mistress that he had shot her. The wife - from the city of Bluffdale in Utah - was arguing with her husband about him talking to the other woman, police said.

State-run rehabilitation camps for young smartphone addicts have been established in South Korea. The 12-day programme sees teenagers who struggle to stay off their devices hand in their phone and undergo coaching to bring their use down to a healthy level of two to three hours a day, The Times repo

A group of sex offenders are suing a police department for putting "No Trick-or-Treat" signs outside their homes in the run-up to Halloween. Lawyers for over 200 sex offenders have claimed that the practice – introduced last year in Butts County in the US state of Georgia – violates thei

A restaurant has been fined nearly £50,000 for giving menus without prices to women dining with men. The upmarket eatery said its practice allows women to "enjoy a romantic evening" with a male chaperone without having to worry about its impact on his wallet.

Banks in Turkmenistan have been ordered by presidential decree to fund a patriotic dog breeding programme. President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov has told eight national banks that they must assist in his project to improve the pedigree of the Alabay dog breed, recognised as part of the national herita

A police officer has been slapped with a £600 fine and six penalty points after crashing into traffic lights outside Perth's police headquarters. Mark Chance, 25, pleaded guilty to a charge of careless driving after careering straight into the lights while trying to overtake a bicycling collea