Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty was felled by a block of snow as he toured an igloo on the sidelines of G7 talks in Canada's far north.
Mr Flaherty was unscathed when the igloo archway slab got snagged on his parka hood and fell onto his back as he exited the demonstration snow house. The bricks made of packed snow can weigh up to nine kilograms.
Its Inuit builders said they would quickly repair the damage to the igloo that had only been erected hours earlier. Mr Flaherty, meanwhile, laughed off the incident. (AFP)
Brainy cat lovers
Clever people are more likely to own cats than dogs, a study revealed, as it emerged that domestic populations of both animals may have risen by eight million in 20 years.
People with degrees were found to favour cats - possibly because longer working hours leave less time to devote to a dog, researchers at the University of Bristol said.
Cats and dogs are among the most popular pets in the UK but their population estimates were last published in a scientific peer-reviewed journal in 1989. (PA)
Inmates overcharged
A prison was forced to repay almost £10,000 to inmates who were overcharged for watching their in-cell televisions, the Ministry of Justice has confirmed.
The weekly charge for a television at HMP Liverpool is £1 per cell, but prisoners in shared cells are able to split the cost.
Around 1,400 inmates at the prison will be repaid a total of £9,580 because they were charged the full rate when they were eligible for a discount. (PA)
Plane panel falls on parking lot
A car-sized panel from a cargo jet fell out of the sky last Friday and crashed into a mall parking lot in the US state of Florida.
Federal authorities and Atlas Air Inc were investigating why the 68-kilo canoe-shaped fairing detached from the wing of a Boeing 747 cargo plane as it approached Miami International Airport at the end of a flight from Chile.
The plane had no problems landing, the Federal Aviation Administration said. But although no one was injured in the incident, it could have been deadly.
The jet was about four kilometres from the airport at an altitude of 450 metres when the fiberglass panel fell from the plane's flap assembly.
The panel crashed to the ground between two empty parking spaces at the Miami International Mall in Doral. (AFP)
Topless women in sub-zero protest
It must have been the soaring political temperature in Ukraine that kept four women safe from the sub-zero weather after they stripped to the waist to protest during a presidential election yesterday.
Strategically placed green sticky-tape did little to save the blushes of election officials when the fur coats came off and the women posed for photographers who had turned up to see opposition candidate Viktor Yanukovich cast his vote.
"Don't sell your votes!" shouted the women, who said they represented a group called "Femen". They held up banners that read: "Stop raping the country".
The women said they were protesting against the state of Ukrainian democracy after five years of crippling political infighting.
The protest began inside a polling station but the women were bundled out into the cold and the waiting arms of police officers who arrested them. (Reuters)
Man operated on pet
A man who said he could not afford medical care for his dog has been charged with illegally operating on the pet.
The man, from Rhode Island in the US, removed a cyst from the leg of his dog, which was then operated on again by professionals to deal with an infection from the first surgery.
The man pleaded no contest to charges of animal cruelty and unauthorised practice of veterinary medicine. (PA)
Slippery suspect
A man who stuffed 75 bottles of body lotion down his trousers could not slip away from authorities, police in the US said.
The man, from Massachusetts, was hampered by trousers that were nearly bursting at the seams.
Shopping centre security guards chased the man who had stuffed so many of the containers in his clothes that he could barely run, police said. (PA)