A German woman arrested on suspicion of trying to smuggle a corpse onto a plane says her husband was still alive when they reached Liverpool airport.
Gitta Jarant and her daughter were arrested at Liverpool's John Lennon airport last Saturday suspected of failing to give notice of Willi's death. She told the paper the 91-year-old former pilot had died at the airport just before the flight.
"I'm not a smuggler," Mrs Jarant, 66, said. "My Willi only died at the airport. He suddenly looked so lifeless, like a wax figure. His fingernails turned blue all of a sudden. At home he was still warm - I swear!"
The retired pilot was pushed in a wheelchair through the airport wearing sunglasses before check-in staff became suspicious and he was prevented from boarding the plane. (Reuters)
Beer staff banned from drinking
A few hundred warehouse workers and drivers at Danish brewer Carlsberg halted work for a second day last Thursday to protest a company decision to limit beer drinking at work to lunch breaks.
The strike in Denmark followed the company's decision to introduce new rules for employees on beer drinking at work, said Jens Bekke, spokesman at the world no.4 brewer.
"There has been free beer, water and soft drinks everywhere," he said. "Yesterday, beers were removed from all refrigerators. The only place you can get a beer in future is in the canteen, at lunch."
Mr Bekke said drivers retained an old right to three beers per day outside lunch hours, and warehouse workers claimed the same right. Because of that, the warehouse staff went on strike with other staff striking in sympathy. (Reuters)
€100,000 to recover missing cobra
Authorities in the German city of Muelheim spent €100,000 on a three-week mission to recover a missing snake - only to discover it had died.
After the highly poisonous monocled cobra escaped from its container in March, fire services cleared the entire apartment block, removed all the furniture and gutted the owner's flat.
They then sealed all the doors and windows of the building, so the 30-centimetre long reptile couldn't get out, and set large sticky traps to catch it.
Officials finally found the snake lying dead in the rooftop apartment of its 19-year-old owner on Thursday.
By that time the cost of the operation had ballooned to about €100,000. (Reuters)
Low...er standards
The "world's local bank" has apologised after it misspelt the name of one of its branches.
A new sign was placed above the door of HSBC, in Lowestoft, Suffolk, following a refurbishment.
It said: "Welcome to Lowerstoft, a branch of the world's local bank". But bank bosses were left red faced after customers pointed out an "r" had been wrongly added into the name of the coastal town. (PA)
'Dead' boy saw granny in Heaven
A three-year-old boy revived by doctors after being clinically dead for more than three hours says he saw his great-grandmother in Heaven, the Bild daily has reported.
The boy, named only as Paul, was airlifted to hospital after falling into a lake at the end of his grandparents' garden in the town of Lychen, north of Berlin, and doctors were about to abandon resuscitation efforts.
But after three hours and 18 minutes, Paul's heart starting beating again.
"I have never experienced anything like it," one of the doctors said. "Normally when children have been underwater for several minutes, they don't make it. Paul said to his parents: 'I was with Oma (granny) Emmi in Heaven. She told me to go back really quickly'." (AFP)
Billed out
A US teenager was relieved to hear that getting lost on a mountain will not land him with a bill for $25,000.
Scott Mason had been told he would have to reimburse authorities the cost of finding him after he spent three nights alone on Mount Washington, New Hampshire, last April when he sprained his ankle after veering off marked trails.
At the time he was praised for using his Boy Scout skills to stay alive, but was then criticised for being unprepared for the conditions and handed the bill. However, local attorney general Michael Delaney said it was now clear Scott was not in a position to pay, but it was hoped the youngster would instead learn his lesson from the incident. (PA)
Driver not required
Researchers in the US have unveiled a new sports car which has one key difference from all its high-performance rivals - it does not need a driver.
The Audi car, named Shelley, is being developed by a team at Stanford University as they bid to make driving safer and one day allow ordinary vehicles to drive on their own.
And Shelley is set for a tough challenge to prove her worth - this autumn she will be tested at Colorado's Pikes Peak, home of the world-famous International Hill Climb that has bedevilled professional drivers with its steep gradients and treacherous switchbacks since 1916.
Lucky dogs!
A man who robbed a bank in the US was not content with the crime - and immediately went on to steal a car with two Chihuahuas inside.
The man raided a Portland Bank of America branch and, after grabbing some cash, demanded the keys from the car's owner, who happened to be inside the bank at the time.
He ran to the Jaguar car and drove off, taking the dogs with him, but a short time later he crashed into a fast-food restaurant and had to flee on foot. He remains at large, but the dogs were recovered unharmed. (PA)