Don't Panic! Lighten Up!S

UFO

Alien invasion? Proposal triggers UFO alert

Quirky bid to pop the question with flying lanterns spooks German villagers

A creative marriage proposal triggered a UFO scare, German police said on Thursday.

Several people alerted authorities after spotting unusual lights drifting across the sky above the sleepy Bavarian town of Plattling on Wednesday night.

Bizarro Earth

US: Ticketed driver pays Wisconsin fine, 21 years later

Someone in Texas apparently had a guilty conscience, paying up on a parking ticket handed out 21 years before.

The Kenosha Police Department says officers found a $6 payment for the ticket, issued Jan. 20, 1987, in a drop box.

Bizarro Earth

China: Taxi-driver's own goal

A taxi driver unwittingly became the getaway driver for a thief who had just burgled his home.

Mr Shen, of Huainan city, picked up the passenger at a bus stop at around 3am, reports Xin'an Evening Post.

"He had a lot of home appliances, so I helped him put all of his things into the cab," he said.

Recycle

UK: Man cleans town for free - for 14 years

A public-spirited road-sweeper is cleaning his home town for free - 14 years after retiring.

Former council worker Phillip Winfield, 74, has collected an estimated 200 tonnes of rubbish since he retired at 60.

He loved the job he did for 21 years so much he continued his rounds, often rising at 5am and working until 10pm.

Frog

Deadly brown snake bites man's penis

A ROADSIDE toilet stop ended in pain, embarrassment and almost death for a tourist when a highly venomous snake bit the end of his penis.

The deadly brown snake slithered between his legs and lunged at his manhood as he crouched on a roadside near Laura, 300km northwest of Cairns, about a month ago.

Details of the incident only came to light yesterday after they were confirmed by a paramedic, cairns.com.au reports today.

Frog

Weird world

Cake causes a ruckus and a tortoise wreaks havoc in this week's strangest stories.

Bizarro Earth

Japan man discovers woman living in his closet

A Japanese man who was mystified when food kept disappearing from his kitchen, set up a hidden camera and found an unknown woman living secretly in his closet, Japanese media said on Friday.

The 57-year-old unemployed man of Fukuoka in southern Japan called police on Wednesday when the camera sent pictures to his mobile phone of an intruder in his home while he was out on Wednesday, the Asahi newspaper said on its Website.

Beer

Japan plans to brew 'space beer'

A Japanese brewery Tuesday said it was planning the first "space beer," using offspring of barley once stored at the International Space Station.

Researchers said the project was part of efforts to prepare for a future in which humans spend extended periods of time in space -- and might like a cold beer after a space walk.

Japanese brewery Sapporo Holdings said it would make beer using the third generation of barley grains that had spent five months on the International Space Station in 2006.

"We want to finish the beer by November. It will be the first space beer," Sapporo executive Junichi Ichikawa told reporters.

Image
©AFP
A student holds up a bunch of "space barley"

Smiley

Cannabis blunder at Tokyo airport

An unwitting passenger arriving at Japan's Narita airport has received 142g of cannabis after a customs test went awry, officials say.

A customs officer hid a package of the banned substance in a side pocket of a randomly chosen suitcase in order to test airport security.

Sniffer dogs failed to detect the cannabis and the officer could not remember which bag he had put it in.

Anyone finding the package has been asked to contact customs officials.

Recycle

Carla Bruni-Sarkozy sings of love for Nicolas

The Italian-born model-turned-singer's third album contains her own rendition of Bob Dylan's dewy-eyed ballad You Belong To Me, with blatant references to exotic destinations she and the French President visited last year during their lightning romance.

"See the pyramids along the Nile... Just remember darling, all the while, you belong to me," she croons in the Dylan song.

Image
©Unknown
arla Bruni-Sarkozy refers to the couple's foreign trips in her cover of Bob Dylan's 'You Belong to Me'