A pram sold in an internet auction in Germany came complete with a deadly plaything - a pistol loaded with six bullets.
A young couple from the northern town of Verden found the 9 mm Sig Sauer pistol in a side pocket of the pram after collecting it from nearby Hamburg. They called the police.
Officers searched the house of the 39-year-old seller, who could not explain how the weapon had got there. "He said it didn't belong to him," police said yesterday.
007 truck confiscated
Mexican soldiers battling a violent drug gang and corrupt local police confiscated a sport utility vehicle decked out with extras worthy of a James Bond movie.
Cartel members rammed their SUV into a military truck patrolling in the state of Tamaulipas and threw a hand grenade before making their escape with the help of local police, the army said in a statement.
Following a shootout with the gang, soldiers said they arrested four municipal police and confiscated an armoured Jeep Grand Cherokee equipped with a smoke machine and spike sprayer meant to deter pursuers. Soldiers also confiscated dozens of rifles, pistols and hand grenades, 3,000 of rounds of ammunition and $20,000 in cash, the army said.
Winemaker's nose insured
The Lloyd's of London insurance market has insured the nose of a leading wine maker and taster for €5 million, covering the Bordeaux producer against the loss of his nose and sense of smell.
Lloyd's is famous for creating policies for giant corporations but also for insuring celebrity limbs, from Fred Astaire's legs to the hands of Rolling Stones' Keith Richards.
It said that Ilja Gort, the Dutch owner of Chateau de la Garde in Bordeaux, producer of Tulipe Wines, said his nose could distinguish millions of different scents and was essential to guarantee the quality of his wines.
Mr Gort's will not be the first nose insured by Lloyd's, which famously insured US comedian Jimmy Durante's trademark. It also insures the taste buds of restaurateur Egon Ronay.
No squatting in toilets
Beijing organisers are refitting the toilets at three main Olympic venues after complaints from foreign athletes about having to squat, an official said yesterday.
Most toilets in China are still of the squat rather than sit-down variety, as spectators and competitors at recent test events in otherwise state of the art venues like the "Water Cube" aquatics centre discovered.
"In my personal point of view, there are cultural differences between Chinese and Western people. Chinese are more used to squat toilets," said Yao Hui, a senior official responsible for the management of Olympic venues. "Toilet alteration projects at the Bird's Nest (National Stadium), the Water Cube and National Indoor Stadium are ongoing and if technical conditions permit, all the toilets in these stadiums will be changed."
Beijing has 5,200 public toilets, the Beijing Evening Post reported earlier this month, more than any city in the world.
Arthur C. Clarke dies aged 90
Pioneering science fiction writer and visionary Arthur C. Clarke, best known for his work on the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, has died in his adopted home of Sri Lanka at the age of 90.
He died of respiratory complications and heart failure doctors linked to the post-polio syndrome that had kept him wheelchair-bound for years.
Arthur C. Clarke was born in England in 1917, and served as a radar specialist in the Royal Air Force during WWII. He was one of the first to suggest the use of satellites orbiting the earth for communications, and in the 1940s forecast that man would reach the Moon by the year 2000. He wrote around 100 books and hundreds of short stories and articles, and wanted to be remembered foremost as a writer.
Trained as a scientist, he was renowned for basing his work on scientific fact and theory rather than pure fiction. "Absolutely no religious rites of any kind, relating to any religious faith, should be associated with my funeral," he wrote.
Boy marries 10-year-old cousin
An 11-year-old boy has married his 10-year-old cousin in the ultra-conservative Muslim kingdom of Saudi Arabia, a newspaper reported.
Mohammed al-Rashidi and his unidentified cousin will seal the marriage they contracted under the sharia laws of Islam and move in together after a ceremony to take place in the summer, Al-Shams newspaper said.
"I am ready for this marriage. It will help me study better," Mohammed, who goes to primary school in the northern province of Hail, was quoted as saying by Al-Shams. "I invite all my classmates to do like me," the boy said, adding that he wanted to "crown a love story through marriage".