Kids' "power station" sparks radiation alert
A toy nuclear power plant built by two six year-olds sparked a public alert in Germany, only for authorities to discover the would-be security threat was the shell of a computer with a radiation warning sign stuck to it. Fire services and police cordoned off several streets and told residents to stay indoors in the western town of Oelde after the two boys left their mock power station on the street when they went home for dinner.
Police search for naked french fry thief
Canadian police are searching for a brazen thief who snatched a take-away meal while making a naked run past a fast food restaurant's drive-though window. An employee of a Langley, British Columbia, Wendy's restaurant was handing food to a customer waiting in her car when a naked man ran between them, taking off with her fries, and leaving little evidence behind, according to police.
Ex-smoker Obama still sneaks occasional puff
U.S. President Barack Obama may have just made life more difficult for cigarette makers, but he is not above sneaking a smoke every now and again. Obama, who has publicly struggled to quit smoking, said he still hasn't completely kicked the habit even after signing a law this week that will likely set tough new rules for the tobacco industry.
I won't stop screeching, says teenager
Portuguese teenager Michelle Larcher De Brito swept silently into the second round at Wimbledon Monday and then defiantly refused to stop screeching if her matches get tougher. The 16-year-old made headlines at the French Open when she wailed and screeched so loudly on court that her opponent complained to the umpire.
Shot dog bites gunman
A dog in Germany shot by a drunken man with a gun took swift revenge by biting off the end of the man's nose, authorities said. Police said the armed man was snooping at night in the yard of a house in Stadtlauringen in northern Bavaria when he shot the Bernese mountain dog from point-blank range.
French village on alert after crocodile sightings
A French village is on the alert after several sightings of a crocodile were reported in a local pond and police and local anglers have joined the hunt for the elusive creature dubbed the "Loch Ness monster of the Vosges." Xertigny, a village of some 3,000 inhabitants in the Vosges region in eastern France, has been transfixed by the unexplained sightings and sightseers have regularly gathered by the water's edge to follow the hunt.