Out of work for six months and desperate to find a job, one innovative New Yorker donned his new power suit - a sandwich board - and hit the streets of Manhattan to lure potential employers.

"Experienced MIT Grad For Hire!" read 48-year-old Joshua Persky's advertisement as he paraded around midtown Manhattan, a key location for commercial banks and investment houses.

He was also just blocks away from where he worked for two years as a valuations consultant for Houlihan Lokey, a mid-cap investment bank, before he was laid off.

"I chose that area because that's where the money is. There are always people strolling outside around lunch time. I've handed out a lot of resumes and gotten some leads but no offers yet," said Mr Persky.

Nails removed from metal-eating man

Doctors in a coastal town in northwestern Peru have rescued the innards of a 38-year-old man by removing 17 metal objects - among them nails, a watch clasp and a knife - that he ate.

Luis Zarate was taken to the regional hospital of Trujillo last week by his family after complaining of sharp stomach pains. Doctors took X-rays of his chest that showed his insides littered with screws.

"There were 17 strange objects found at the level of his stomach and colon," said Julio Acevedo, one of the surgeons who operated on Mr Zarate.

The black-and-white scans showed Mr Zarate's skeleton interlaced with things like bolts, barbed-wire and pens. "The objects had caused the stomach to expand," said Dr Acevedo.

Doctors said Mr Zarate was mentally ill but it was not clear why he ate the metal.

Wax Hitler assailant to escape fine

A former Berlin police officer who tore off the head of an Adolf Hitler waxwork at a new museum in the German capital will probably not have to pay for damages because he is destitute.

The 41-year-old scuffled with guards and leapt over a rope barrier before tearing off Hitler's head just minutes after Berlin's new Madame Tussauds opened two weeks ago. The headless Hitler waxwork worth €200,000 was removed for repairs.

Russians plead with Abramovich to stay

The Arctic region of Chukotka in Russia's Far East yesterday implored billionaire soccer club owner Roman Abramovich not to abandon the region 10 days after he quit as governor.

The current head of the Chukotka's Parliament offered to resign on grounds of poor health and allow Mr Abramovich - owner of London soccer club Chelsea and ranked Russia's second richest man - to take over.

"You and your team have proved that you can solve our common problems," Vasily Nazarenko, Chukotka's parliamentary chairman, was quoted as saying. "Therefore, taking into account the views of the voters, we ask you to agree to run as a parliamentary deputy and, after the election, become chairman of the Parliament of the Chukotka Autonomous District."

Since becoming governor in 2000 Abramovich, 41, has lavished millions of dollars on Chukotka, a region almost the size of Turkey but with a population of around 50,000 people.

Wins damages over gay driving test

An Italian court has ruled the government must pay €100,000 in damages to a man who was told to retake a driving test because he was homosexual.

When 26 year-old Danilo Giuffrida told doctors he was gay at his medical examination for military service, they passed the information to the transport ministry, who told him he must repeat his driving test or have his licence withdrawn due to his "sexual identity disturbance."

Mr Giuffrida agreed to re-take his test, passed it for a second time, but the ministry renewed his licence for just one year rather than the usual 10 years because of his homosexuality.

The judge ruling on the case in Catania said the actions of the defence and transport ministries showed "evident sexual discrimination" against Mr Giuffrida and ran counter to his constitutional rights.

'Hitmen' website adverts probed

Mexico City police are investigating classified advertisements posted on the internet by people offering their services as hired killers for as little as $6,000, police said over the weekend.

One post on the website, which hosts free ads for people selling old home appliances or renting apartments, advertises the services of an "ex-military hitman, professional and discrete". The man promises a "job guaranteed in 10 days or less" and adds "I have worked in Spain, only serious offers, $6,000."

A police spokesman said authorities were taking the ads seriously, at a time when Mexican drug cartels and organised crime gangs are going ever more public with their tit-for-tat murders and leaving bodies and severed heads in streets.