A council ordered an England football fan to remove St George's flags from a communal area outside his flat for health and safety reasons.
Supermarket worker Karl Staples, 20, put up the flags, bunting and balloons in support of the team, who are taking part in the World Cup, which starts next month in South Africa.
He said he was told to take them down by wardens at the council flats in Southampton and he branded the decision "ridiculous".
Straw house
An environmentally-friendly house made of straw is strong enough to withstand a hurricane - and the big bad wolf, tests have revealed.
The BaleHaus@Bath was built with straw bale panels as a flagship low-carbon building at the University of Bath in Somerset.
After putting the dwelling through its paces, tests confirmed it is "more than strong enough" to withstand hurricane force winds.
Bowled over
Parents believe that playing cricket can help boost a child's grades in the classroom, research suggests.
Competitive sports improve pupils' discipline, motivation and confidence, parents told a study by the Cricket Foundation.
The study also reveals that they think cricket is no longer for the elite, and is attracting more players from different ethnic backgrounds.
Swinging into jail
A Chinese college professor was jailed for nearly four years for running a swingers club and holding private orgies.
Ma Yaohai, 53, was convicted and sentenced on charges of group licentiousness, said an official from the Qinhuai District Court in south-eastern Nanjing.
Ma, along with 21 other people, was arrested and charged last year - the first time anyone has been charged under a 1997 law.
Royal resort
The Queen joined an audience of more than 6,500 people to enjoy an open-air theatre performance at a seaside resort.
Accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh, the Queen officially opened Scarborough Open Air Theatre in front of a cheering crowd gathered in the sun.
Wearing a floral dress, with a matching turquoise coat and hat, adorned with a magenta flower, the Queen watched as local theatre groups performed song and dance routines and a specially written play about Scarborough's history.
'High' poverty
The number of pensioners and children living in poverty in the UK has fallen but remain at "historically high levels", Govern-ment figures showed.
The number of people of working-age in poverty is the highest since records began, the study of Households Below Average Income (HBAI) also revealed.
Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith said the figures showed that the "vast" expenditure on the benefits system by the previous government had failed.
Daddy's sauce
A father in Massachusetts offered to give his three-month-old daughter to a stranger outside a petrol station convenience store in exchange for beer.
A man called the police who found Matthew Brace, 24, hiding with the girl behind a rubbish bin.
The girl was taken into care. Her mother was in the store at the time buying cigarettes.
Muggers mugged
Three muggers attacking a man fled in a panic when five members of a nearby martial arts school rushed to the rescue dressed in full ninja gear.
Police in Sydney said they tried to rob their 27-year-old victim after he got off a train.
But a student at a nearby ninja school saw what was happening and called on his teacher and three other students for help.
Hip replacement
British Estate agents have welcomed the news that controversial home information packs (Hips) are being scrapped with immediate effect.
The move means homeowners will no longer need to spend money providing one of the packs before they can put their property up for sale.
Communities Secretary Eric Pickles laid an order before Parliament suspending Hips, pending primary legislation for a permanent abolition.
High rise
The number of new homes being built in England rose to its highest level for nearly two years during the first quarter of 2010, figures showed.
Around 24,930 properties were started in the three months to the end of March, a level last seen during the second quarter of 2008, according to Communities and Local Government.
But despite housing starts being 62 per cent above their low point seen in the first quarter of 2009, they were still running at half the level they reached when the market peaked in 2007.
Motoring ahead
Car production accelerated again last month, rising 44 per cent compared with April 2009.
A total of 98,290 cars were made in the UK in April 2010, with the increase emphasising just how deeply in recession the motor industry was in the first months of last year.
Commercial vehicle (CV) pro-duction also rose sharply last month, increasing 40.8 per cent to 10,777, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) said.
Asda's pledge
Asda pledged to sell cancer drugs on a not-for-profit basis following the success of a similar scheme for IVF.
The supermarket giant said it was calling on industry to follow its lead and end price mark-ups on all cancer drugs prescribed privately.
The move could save cancer sufferers thousands of pounds on the cost of treatments that may extend their lives but which are not always available on the NHS.