Odd news summary

FLYING HIGH

Thousands of bees were installed in a beehive on the roof of St Paul's Cathedral as part of the City of London festival in the capital.

The hive is one of eight being installed at famous City locations including the Lloyd's building, Mansion House, the Museum of London and Sir John Cass Primary School as part of the City Bees project.

Urban beekeeping expert Brian McCallum and his team were training volunteers from each organisation to take care of the bees, which are expected to stay in their locations for years.

GCSE CHURCH

Pupils could be asked to study the way singer Charlotte Church talks as part of a new English GCSE.

The language used by Gavin And Stacey actress Ruth Jones and comedian Rob Brydon could also be on the syllabus for teenagers studying GCSE English in Wales.

Exam board OCR Cymru listed the celebrities as possible case studies as part of a new unit on the spoken word.

CAR CRASH

As many as 20% of motorists would not own up if they damaged a parked car.

And around 20% said it would depend on what car they hit as to whether they left their details, the poll insurance company elephant.co.uk found.

A total of 45% of the 3,000 motorists questioned said they had had their own parked car damaged, with only 15% of those lucky enough to be left the details of the culprit.

JESUS BURNS

A six-storey-tall statue of Jesus Christ with his arms raised along a highway was struck by lightning in a thunderstorm and burned to the ground.

The King of Kings statue, one of south-west Ohio's most familiar landmarks, had stood since 2004 at the evangelical Solid Rock Church along Interstate 75 in Monroe, just north of Cincinnati.

The sculpture, 62ft tall and 40ft wide at the base, was made of plastic foam and fibreglass over a steel frame, which is all that remains after the apparent act of God.

SURVIVAL VOYAGE

Four adventurers got a bit too close to historical accuracy as they encountered freak waves and severe hunger during a seven-week re-enactment of the epic survival voyage of Captain William Bligh.

The expedition landed on Kupang beach in eastern Indonesia after an exhausting 4,400-mile journey. Aussie captain Don McIntyre said they nearly capsized four times and suffered from dehydration and lack of nutrients.

Bligh, who was cast adrift by mutineers from the HMS Bounty in 1789, sailed a 45ft open longboat with 18 crew from near Tonga to West Timor in 48 days, surviving partly by catching fish and seabirds and drinking rainwater.

PRISON MUSIC

The sound of Broadway medleys and love songs echoed inside the walls of the Philippines' maximum security penitentiary when convicts, many of them serving life sentences for murder and other major crimes, gave their first public concert.

The 100-member Bureau of Corrections Grand Orchestra and Chorale at the New Bilibid Prison in Manila played Broadway pieces and love songs in the local Tagalog language to prison officials, relatives and media. A soloist also sang New York, New York as women inmates in top hats and coat-tails danced.

Prison officials and organisers said the project was part of efforts to showcase musical talents of some of the inmates and help prepare them for release.