A British man was sentenced to five days' detention in Riga yesterday for urinating on one of Latvia's most treasured monuments. A court official said the Briton, who denied the charges, would serve his detention in a police cell after being found guilty of urinating on the Freedom Monument.
Erected in 1935, this is a 42-metre-high symbol of the Baltic state's resistance to foreign rule, which has included 50 years of Soviet occupation.
People detained for acts of disrespect in the past have been fined. One man wearing a kilt uncovered his genitals at the monument last year.
Turkmen book-shaped school
Turkmen authorities opened a book-shaped school yesterday to mark the birthday of Saparmurat Niyazov, their late leader who cultivated a personality cult.
The school was named after his Rukhnama, a tome that the man who took the title of Turkmenbashi (Head of the Turkmen) demanded the population of five million learn by heart.
Mr Niyazov, an autocrat who banned gold teeth and renamed the month of April after his mother, ruled from independence in 1991 until his sudden death in 2006.
The Rukhnama, also called The Book of the Soul, is still a must-read for schoolchildren and part of the national driving exam. The book is a collection of moral advice and history.
Fag put out with fire extinguisher
A virulent anti-smoker in Germany was so angry when his girlfriend lit up that he emptied a fire extinguisher to put out the cigarette, caking her and their apartment in powder.
"My colleagues said it looked like a bomb had gone off in there," said a spokesman for police in the western city of Bielefeld. "He managed to put the cigarette out though."
After the woman ignored his request not to smoke, the 42-year-old sprayed the contents of the extinguisher all around the flat shouting abuse, police said.
"He said he wasn't bothered by the damage it caused," the spokesman said. "And that he's through with his girlfriend."
Australia seeking fatter mailmen
Australia's postal service has increased the maximum weight for mailmen and women by 15 kilos in an attempt to attract more "posties", local media reported yesterday.
Australia Post had a weight limit of 90 kilos for "posties" because its 110cc motorcycles had a safe working limit of 130 kilos - that's 40 kilos for letters and up to 90 kilos for mailmen and women fully clothed.
But after talks with motorcycle manufacturer Honda it was agreed the bikes could safely carry a "postie" weighing 105 kilos, said Sydney's the Daily Telegraph newspaper. But the "posties" will only carry 25 kilos of mail.
Editor resigns over faked photo
The chief editor of a Chinese newspaper quit after it emerged that one of its photographers had faked a prize-winning photograph of endangered Tibetan antelopes appearing unfazed by a much-criticised new railway.
The photograph by Liu Weiqiang, 41, showed more than 20 antelopes wandering unperturbed beneath an overpass of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway, which opened in July 2006, the official Xinhua news agency said.
Mr Liu admitted to having spliced two shots together to create the image after a posting on photography website xitek.com late last week noted a fault line in the photo - and that the shy creatures appeared too calm given a train was speeding overhead.
The show did go on
A packed performance of a West End opera was saved at the weekend when a member of the audience stepped in to sing the lead role after the star lost his voice.
Paul Whelan, 38, saved the English National Opera's production of Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor by singing the part of Raimondo from the wings while bass Clive Bayley, who suffered a chest infection, mimed the part on stage.
Mr Whelan was able to carry off the feat as he had been studying the role and is due to take over from Mr Bayley in a few weeks' time, although he hadn't had any chance to rehearse.
'Empire' beer for UK troops
A British pub is brewing a special beer for soldiers headed to Afghanistan called "Every Man an Emperor", a name unlikely to sit well with Afghans sensitive about foreign troops in their land.
The Fox and Fiddler pub in Colchester, a town north of London where Britain's elite Parachute Regiment is based, launched the specially commissioned beer yesterday, ahead of the regiment's deployment in April.
"I just wanted to do a little something myself to send them on their way," the pub's landlord, Jeff Wright, said in a statement distributed by the Ministry of Defence, which has given its full backing to the initiative.
The name "Every Man an Emperor" was taken from a speech that Field Marshall Montgomery made about the Parachute Regiment in 1944 and has since become an unofficial motto of the force.