A woman is awaiting sentence for attempted burglary after breaking into a home, cleaning it and leaving a bill for $75 (€59).

Susan Warren, 53, who pleaded guilty, said she was driving by the house in Westlake, Ohio, and “wanted something to do”. She broke in, washed some coffee cups, took out the rubbish, vacuumed and dusted inside the house. Then she left a bill written on a napkin that included her phone number.

She said she owns a cleaning business and sometimes enters homes, cleans them and leaves a bill. She has another burglary case pending. (AP)

Benedict to start tweeting

Pope Benedict XVI is to start tweeting from a personal Twitter account.

The Pope, 85, sent his first tweet from a Vatican account last year when he launched the Vatican’s news information portal. The new Twitter account will be his own, though it is doubtful that Pope Benedict himself will wrestle down his encyclicals, apostolic exhortations and other papal pronouncements into 140-character bites.

Pope Benedict, who writes longhand and does not normally use a computer, will more likely sign off on tweets written in his name.

Florence and the latrine

Chart stars Florence and the Machine were almost late for a live radio gig – after their drummer got locked in the loo.

Chris Hayden became trapped shortly before a BBC Radio 2 performance at the Rivoli Ballroom in Brockley, south London. He had to be rescued by staff, who removed the door to free him from the cubicle before the gig on presenter Jo Whiley’s show on Thursday night.

Welch said of her drummer: “I didn’t know whether to say it on stage because I didn’t want to embarrass him, but he got trapped in the loo.” (AP)

Dead keen on voting

A ‘dead’ man voted in the US presidential election – legally.

A nurse in Southfield Township, Michigan, was casting his own ballot when a man, filling out the same forms with the help of his wife, keeled over.

“She screamed for help, and I went over,” said the nurse, Ty Houston. “He was dead. He had no heartbeat and wasn’t breathing. I started CPR and... he revived,” he said.

“The first question he asked was ‘Did I vote?’.”

He did. (AP)

Queer name for new beer

British MP Danny Alexander has celebrated the launch of Ginger Rodent beer, which shares the moniker fired at him as an insult by a Labour opponent.

The Chief Treasury Secretary attended the launch by Cairngorm Brewery in Aviemore and even promised to take a couple of bottles back to Westminster for Harriet Harman.

Ms Harman, deputy Labour leader, branded Mr Alexander “a ginger rodent” in a speech to the Scottish Labour party conference in 2010 and was later forced to apologise. (PA)