German police have arrested a 60-year-old landlord after discovering he used cameras and microphones to spy on his tenants for a decade while they bathed and slept.
The man had installed surveillance in the bedrooms, bathrooms and living areas of two flats 10 years ago in the city of Ingolstadt. He taped at least seven current and previous tenants - and an unknown number of their guests.
He was arrested after one of his tenants discovered the bugging while she was cleaning the flat. The landlord admitted he had been watching and recording tenants and guests.
Police suspect he had sexual motives.
Jamaican experience
Burglars broke into the Kingston home of Jamaican Prime Minister Bruce Golding's daughter as she slept and made off with a laptop computer and other valuables, police said yesterday.
Sherine Golding and her fiance were in Ms Golding's townhouse in the upscale Hope Road area of the Jamaican capital when the burglars struck. Police said they took cellular telephones, a car radio, a licensed gun and ammunition in addition to the computer.
The Caribbean nation of 2.7 million people has long held the dubious distinction of having one of the world's highest murder rates. So far this year more than 1,300 people have been murdered.
Slippery opponent
A group of Brazilian firemen and environmental police yesterday had a different opponent to wrestle with.
An anaconda measuring around six metres long and weighing some 150 kg, was found in an abandoned house and reported by frightened local residents in the village of Arroio Guacu on the banks of the Parana River, 500 kilometres west of Curitiba in southern Brazil.
The anaconda, a non-venomous snake that kills by crushing its victims, was removed from the area to be sent to a nearby animal park.
Mailer awarded Bad Sex prize
Writer Norman Mailer, a giant of the American literary scene and twice a winner of the Pulitzer Prize, was posthumously given the Bad Sex in Fiction Award on Tuesday.
The judges paid homage to Mr Mailer as a great American man of letters and hailed his "innovative journalism, his combative spirit and his love of life". However, they could not resist awarding him the prize for a graphic passage in his novel The Castle in the Forest.
True to his style, the winning passage leaves little to the imagination.
Norman Mailer, renowned for his biting prose, penchant for controversy and larger-than-life personality died on November 10 of kidney failure, aged 84.
Giant truffle
A 1.5-kg-white truffle found in the Italian countryside will be sold at a charity auction in Macau where it is expected to fetch €150,000.
Truffle hunter Cristiano Savini displayed his precious find in Rome on Tuesday before it was flown to the Chinese enclave for Saturday's auction.
Mr Savini's dog, Rocco, sniffed out the truffle, one of the biggest unearthed in the past 50 years, by an oak tree near Pisa last weekend.
The truffle was 75 centimetres underground. It took Savini and his father more than an hour to get the truffle out. Mr Savini decided to donate his truffle to organisers of the Macau auction.
According to media reports, the 1.5-kg truffles were the biggest since a 2.5-kg truffle was found in 1954 and presented to former US President Dwight Eisenhower.
Cock crows too early
A rooster crowing at the break of dawn has earned his owner a €200 fine in an Italian court after neighbours complained it was waking them up too early.
Ansa news agency reported yesterday that the rooster's owner in Bolzano province would appeal the sentence, supported by the local Farmers' Association, on the grounds that he needs at least one rooster to breed chickens.