And Finally

Police officers attending domestic disputes are to be issued with sound protection because of noise at work regulations in a UK first. The initiative, pioneered by Police Scotland, follows a review prompted by the PSNI's £135 million bill paid to former officers with damaged hearing.

A go-kart operator that allowed drivers to dress up as Mario characters and drive through major Japanese cities has lost a court battle with Nintendo. The video game company said the MariCAR go-kart service did not have permission to allow drivers to dress up as its characters.

A man has been jailed for three years and fined over £1 million for overharvesting sea cucumbers. Hoon Namkoong, 62, failed to report nearly 115,000 kilograms of sea cucumbers which he bought between 2014 and 2016.

A new start-up has announced plans to launch a cannabis-based treatment for anxious and depressed pets. Weedentity will take advantage of recently relaxed Italian laws to sell a new cannabis oil product aimed at cats and dogs.

A group of people who thought they had survived the Great Tribulation, a period of suffering that Evangelical Christians believe precedes the Second Coming, and who kidnapped their neighbours in order to protect them from demons, were found naked in an SUV they had crashed into a ditch as they attem

A man who hit a parking warden with his car in a bid to avoid airport drop-off fees has been spared jail by a judge who recently faced them. Judge Bernard Lever slapped Graham Benbow, 55, with a six-month sentence suspended for two years.

A school bus driver who allegedly let children as young as 11 take the wheel has been arrested. Joandrea McAtee, 27, is suspected by police of having allowed three pupils aged 11, 13 and 17 to drive the bus for a short distance on a rural road.

A restaurant is under investigation over its practice of giving lobsters marijuana to relax them before they're killed and cooked. Charlotte’s Legendary Lobster Pound owner, Charlotte Gill, who is a licensed medical marijuana giver in Maine, cannot currently serve her "smoked" lobster mea

Authorities have seized nearly £14 million worth of cocaine that was hidden among bananas donated to a prison. Around 540 packages of cocaine were found among the 45 boxes which were donated because they were "already ripe".

French authorities have seized over 20 tonnes of Eiffel Tower souvenirs in a bid to crack down on the illegal souvenir trade. Nine people are now being questioned by police and face potential prosecution over their role in shifting the trinkets.

A raccoon who broke into a woman's bathroom was shamed on social media by local police officers.

Police have issued a warning to beachgoers not to take home giant bundles of cannabis that have started washing up on Florida's coast. One 61-year-old man has so far been arrested and charged with possession of cannabis over 20 grams for claiming part of the illegal flotsam.

New research has uncovered incidents of men kissing cobras in a bid to use their venom as a substitute for opioids. The Indian Journal of Psychological Medicine has published a case study of two such men from the northern Indian state of Rajasthan.

Police officers responding to reports of machine-gun fire and screams arrived to find a children's birthday party in the middle of a foam pellet gun battle. Oliver Green, who was celebrating his eighth birthday, told BBC News he "put my hands up and dropped my gun" when officers arrived at his party

A restaurant owner has been fined around £190 for putting up a sarcastic window sign asking people not to let their dogs pee on an outdoor flower pot. Duc's Place, a Vietnamese restaurant in the US state of Connecticut, put up a sign reading: "Attn: dog owners. This is a pay-per-pee flower pot