A power cut caused by errant crows brought Nepalese government ministries to a halt as they returned to work this week after four days of strike action, the electricity authority said yesterday.

The lights went out in the main government headquarters in the capital Kathmandu early on Monday, forcing civil servants who had just returned to work after the strike to down tools again.

By the time the electricity returned late in the afternoon, most of the government workers had gone home, the Kathmandu Post daily reported, saying the impact of the power outage had been "huge".

The Nepal Electricity Authority said they initially struggled to find the cause of the problem, but eventually discovered crows had landed on the main power line and been electrocuted.

"There was a short circuit after some crows came to land on the main power line," said Khagendra Bhandari, the maintenance official on duty at the time. "It took almost 10 hours to fix the problem." (AFP)

Muff Road residents want name change

The residents of Muff Road have had enough. The sniggering is bad enough for homeowners on the road near the small town of Geraldine in the South Island of New Zealand.

But they are also sick of road signs being stolen as souvenirs as soon as they go up, the Timaru Herald newspaper reported yesterday.

"Because of the ongoing problem with signage, I would like to see the original geographic name restored so the road could have safe signage," resident Roger Payne told local authorities.

The road, named after a family who used to own a farm there, may be given a traditional indigenous Maori name, which should fix the problem.

Muff is a slang term for female genitalia and pubic hair. (AFP)

Fighting monsoon with frog marriage

Indian farmers are falling back on a trusted local method to bring badly needed monsoon rains - marrying off two frogs.

Villagers in West Bengal state pooled their money together this week to marry Ram and Sita, two frogs named after India's most revered mythological couple from the epic Ramayana.

Following an ancient Hindu belief, the frogs' heads were smeared with vermilion paint and the pair were held up in the air in a ritual in front of a traditional clay candle.

"We feted about 3,000 villagers and solemnised the marriage with every single ritual," Shobin Ray, head of a local council in Madhya Baragari village, about 750 kilometres north of state capital Kolkata, said.

The women at the wedding fasted beforehand and then invited the river to join the ceremony and give its blessing, as is customary in Bengali tradition, he said.

India this year suffered its worst start to the vital monsoon rains in eight decades, causing drought in some states. (Reuters)

Giant cake aims for world record

A giant coconut-covered, chocolate-soaked sponge cake half the size of a car was unveiled in northern Australia yesterday in a world record baking attempt.

The 1.3-tonne Australian speciality cake, known as a "lamington," took three days to bake and was presented at an official weigh-in for Guinness World Records in the town of Ipswich, local councilman Paul Tully said.

"It's a pretty big lamington, about... half the size of a small family sedan," Mr Tully told public broadcaster ABC Radio. "There'll be the equivalent of 20,000 small lamingtons, it's a pretty big lamington in anyone's book."

Hundreds of eggs and about 70 kilograms of coconut were used to make the lamington, which was baked to celebrate the national day held in its honour.

"Long live the lamington," declared Ipswich mayor Paul Pisasale at the great cake's unveiling. "I officially declare Ipswich the home of the world's largest lamington."

Lamingtons are considered a culinary institution across the great, dry continent, and are a staple at citizenship ceremonies, cake stalls and on national holidays. (AFP)

'Spider shock' court battle

A German woman who fell down and broke her wrist after being confronted by a giant black spider in her garage has failed in her bid to sue her cleaners for negligence, a court ruled yesterday.

The spider dropped down to her head level, whereupon she jumped back and suffered "a bruised right pelvis, bruises to the right side of her face and a complicated break of the right wrist," the court in Karlsruhe said.

She tried to sue the cleaning company, which was supposed to clean the garage of cobwebs, to the tune of €6,000, claiming their negligence was responsible for her injuries.

But the court rejected her argument, saying: "Even the regular adherence to the monthly duty of clearing away cobwebs could not guarantee that no spiders would appear."

"What happened here was an everyday risk, for which the defendant should not be held responsible," the court concluded. (AFP)

Hawks deliver go-away message to Canada Post

Two nesting hawks have managed to do what Canada's blizzards usually can't - halt delivery of the mail to a few dozen homes in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan.

Canada Post said it stopped delivering to 54 Moose Jaw homes after hawks swooped down on a letter carrier and after a supervisor who came in to inspect the area had to dive for cover. Later, another carrier was attacked two blocks away.

Mischelle Read, who lives on one of two blocks affected by the mail stoppage, saw the hawk swoop at a letter carrier in May before mail delivery stopped.

"It was a 'get-out-of-my-area type of a dive' clearly directed at (the

letter carrier)," Ms Read said. (Reuters)