Russian investigators launched a probe yesterday against a couple suspected of throwing their toddler into a trash chute from the sixth floor of an apartment building.

The two-year-old survived the fall down the narrow chute and neighbours discovered him on the trash heap of the apartment building in the northwestern city of Saint Petersburg on Tuesday after they heard him crying.

The boy suffered concussion, a broken leg and several other injuries and was hospitalised in a state of shock. The boy was in the care of his 42-year-old grandmother, who was found drunk in the sixth-floor apartment she shares with a 34-year-old man, he said. (AFP)

Cross-dressing diplomat

Panama’s government has accepted the resignation of a diplomat who caused a stir by wearing a lace dress with a banana in his bustline for carnival in Spain.

Italo Afu, Panama’s consul in the Spanish Canary Islands, had apologised profusely, saying he did not want “to harm anyone, much less my country.”

Photos of Mr Afu celebrating carnival in a pink dress, earrings and the banana were published in Panama’s media and created a scandal in this socially conservative country whose population is 95 per cent Christian.

But gay rights activist Ricardo Beteta said the episode shows the “intolerance and homophobia of Panamanian society.” (AFP)

Fused to chair

An obese Ohio man had to be cut from a chair he had been sitting in for two years after his body became fused to it.

Police said that the man’s skin had become fused to the seat of the chair, which was covered in urine, faeces and maggots.

The man’s girlfriend brought him food for two years as he sat in his own waste in the filthy apartment they shared with another man, police said.

They called for help on Sunday morning when he was unresponsive and had to cut a hole in the house to get him out of the building so they could get him to the hospital.

The smell was unbearable and one officer told the station that he threw away his uniform after it was sullied while cutting the man out of the chair. (AFP)

‘Rat bread’ plot

A South Korean court passed an 18-month prison term on a baker who posted a doctored photo of a loaf containing a dead rat in an attempt to taint the reputation of a rival shop.

The 35-year-old baker, using an alias, had claimed on a popular website that he found the rodent in a loaf that he bought from a leading bakery franchise just before last Christmas.

Kim, who owned a branch of another bakery franchise at Pyeongtaek, 70 kilometres south of Seoul, admitted he fabricated the case to hurt his rival store’s reputation and boost business at his own shop. (AFP)

Not playful

South African police have arrested a former Currie Cup rugby player over three axe murders allegedly to avenge the gang-rape and HIV infection of his daughter.

Police arrested the 34-year-old man, who played for the Blue Bulls in the Vodacom Cup and Currie Cup, in Durban in the early hours of Tuesday.

One victim was decapitated and others hacked in the neck. A man escaped an attack last week after being confronted by a man who accused him of being a rapist and infecting his daughter.

“As the axe came down towards my head, I ducked and it scratched my stomach,” Khangelani Mdluli, 27, said, adding the attacker pulled out an axe after Mr Mdluli asked who he and his daughter were.

Police found an axe and bloodied clothing when taking the former rugby player into custody. (AFP)

Coy primate

A gorilla is keeping mum over the sex of her baby by cradling the newborn close to her chest.

Keepers at Dublin Zoo still do not know if the tiny western lowland gorilla is a male or a female because mother Lena is proving possessive with her new infant.

The baby arrived on Sunday but zoo spokesman Ciaran McMahon said Lena has not yet let go of her newborn. (PA)

Castaway composer

The works of Mozart have been revealed as the greatest comfort to marooned castaways.

The composer is the most popular choice among guests on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs, new figures reveal.

But despite his compositions being chosen 993 times by the 2,800 figures who have appeared on the show, none of Mozart’s works makes the top eight most popular tunes. (PA)

Windy problem

A change of diet could help flatulent farm animals reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, a study has said.

Government-funded research aimed at helping farmers cut their contribution to climate change shows how to reduce the amount of methane produced by cows and sheep belching and breaking wind.

Researchers at Reading University and the Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences found that dairy cows could emit 20 per cent less methane for every litre of milk if fed crushed rapeseed. (PA)

Child’s play

An innocent-looking colouring book with the words “To Daddy” scribbled on top and posted to a New Jersey jail was actually stuffed with drugs.

An opium substitute was turned into a paste and used to draw on the pages.

Three inmates have been charged with conspiracy and attempt to commit a crime. (PA)