And Finally

An Italian court has acquitted a man accused of falling behind in child support payments after he decided to pay in pizzas instead of euros. Nicola Toso, 50, divorced his wife in 2002 and later found it difficult to keep up with the monthly €400 stipulated in the divorce agreement.

A 77-year-old erotic novel writer who died during a solo sex act was described as passing "in flagrante delicto" by an English coroner. Terence Charles Wakelin, writer of titles like Love Slave, was discovered dead by a friend, surrounded with an assortment of "accoutrements" including electric nipp

A county councillor in Wales has warned locals to keep on the look-out for psychotic, cannabis-fuelled sheep. Ioan Richard has cautioned locals about the possibility of an "outbreak of psychotic sheep rampaging through the village" after suspected cannabis plants were discarded in the countryside ne

A controversial Russian academic has proposed giving the vote to Russia's war dead to allow their continued participation in politics. Alexander Ageyev, director of the influential Institute for Economic Strategies, suggested that the descendants of around 14 million Russians killed during World War

An American man who correctly guessed the password for an electronic message board is facing a felony charge after changing it to read "Drive Crazy Yall". Geoffrey Eltgroth, 26, was arrested after motorists noticed a message board warning of road construction had been altered.

A judge fired for persistently watching adult material on official IT equipment has appealed his dismissal on the basis that he was depressed. Former judge Warren Grant, 61, claims he was suffering from "severe undiagnosed depression" as a result of marital problems and his employers had discriminat

A convicted killer who broke into a charity shop was caught after stopping for a mince pie at the scene of the crime. Cops found Paul Ness, 42, sitting pie-faced in the staff kitchen of the British Heart Foundation store in Leith at the end of January.

Owners of a Belfast lingerie shop have complained that the smell from a Greggs store opening next door will ruin their stock. Mike Tremellen, director of Bravissimo, has written to planning officials to complain that the smell of pasties and pies will "permeate into our shop" and make their stock "u

Internet access is being blacked out across Iraq during sixth grade exams in a bid to stop kids from cheating. Human rights groups are up in arms over government plans to disable access to the Internet across the whole country so that children can take tests without being able to look up answers on

A Chinese man was fined by traffic police after he loaded his truck with two others as he drove down a motorway.

Munich police have suggested alcohol might have been involved in the case of a 24-year-old funeral worker who lost a hearse with a body inside. The man stopped for lunch in Munich while transporting a woman's body from Italy to Poland, but couldn't find the vehicle again afterwards.

A city in Uzbekistan has hit the headlines after municipal teachers were paid in freshly-hatched chicks instead of cash. According to reports, authorities in Nukus were forced to make the unorthodox payment because of cash shortages that have affected Uzbekistan's banks for many years.

A Scottish sheriff court's patience with a serial bird thief ran out after he was convicted of stealing pigeons shortly after being offered an olive branch in a similar pigeon theft case. Dean Wells, 23, was last year convicted of the theft of 24 racing pigeons from an Aberdeen pensioner's loft.

China has cracked down on the use of Internet streaming services by young women who broadcast themselves eating bananas "seductively" and "erotically". New rules introduced by the country's Ministry of Culture are aimed at cutting down on content that is "too vulgar, violent, or too sexual", accordi

A chemist who worked as a drugs tester for police in Massachusetts was high nearly every day at work for eight years, according to investigators. Sonja Farak, 37, who worked for Amherst laboratory and admitted ingesting samples, was high on methamphetamines, ketamine, cocaine, LSD and other drugs we