Don't Panic! Lighten Up!S


Smiley

Germany: Visitor pulls head off Hitler wax figure

A man has torn the wax head off an effigy of Adolf Hitler in Berlin, just minutes after a new branch of the Madame Tussaud's waxwork-museum chain opened for the first time to the public.

Vader

'Satire': Bush Tours America To Survey Damage Caused By His Disastrous Presidency


Bush Tours America To Survey Damage Caused By His Disastrous Presidency

Comment: The area of damage should be expanded to include the other countries he has destroyed.


Grey Alien

Moon mistaken for UFO

Police in Wales were called to investigate a mysterious flying saucer, only to discover it was the moon.

The moon was mistaken for a "bright, stationary" UFO which had been loitering for at least half an hour, by a confused local in South Wales who made a 999 call to the police.

Comment: Damage control? With the spate of recent sightings across the UK one has to wonder. Nothing to see here, move along now.


Black Cat

Crazy cat that frightened neighborhood mends ways

FAIRFIELD, Conn. - A combative cat named Lewis who frightened the neighbors and got his owner into legal trouble two years ago has done so well under house arrest that the case has now been scratched.

A judge dismissed a reckless endangerment charge against Lewis's owner, Ruth Cisero, on Thursday, concluding she had met terms of a special probation for first-time offenders. Lewis is now an indoor pet, allowed outside only in a cat carrier.

"Unlike most of us, Lewis has learned to live with his limitations," said Eugene Riccio, Cisero's attorney.

The scratch-happy black-and-white cat drew widespread attention in 2006 when Cisero opted for a trial on the criminal charge rather than euthanize or declaw him. It became a national claws celeb, and some pet lovers even sported "Save Lewis" shirts.


Smiley

Germany the 'most miserable nation in the European Union'

The report, released by the European Commission this week, confirms what many Germans had themselves long suspected - ­ they are masters of moaning.

Asked if life would be better in 20 years time, just 20 per cent of Germans could bring themselves to agree. In happy-go-lucky Estonia, which topped the chart, 78 per cent of people look at the future through rose-tinted spectacles.

"Estonian citizens were the most optimistic," noted the report, which polled 25,000 people across the EU. "The Germans, on the other hand, were the least optimistic ­ - only one in five expected that life in Germany would improve in the long-term."

Britons were revealed as a touch more sceptical about future prospects than the average European, 49 per cent of whom think life will be worse in 20 years.

Comment: Maybe those polled just have a better understanding of what is happening.


People

Australians making odd choices for funeral songs

ADELAIDE - Hymns are being replaced at funerals in one Australian city by popular rock classics like Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven" and AC/DC's "Highway to Hell," a cemetery manager said Wednesday.

Bizarro Earth

Terrorist spice: Curry grounds plane

A BA jet diverted after passengers thought they smelt poison gas was really grounded by curry.

The flight from Belgrade to London made an emergency evacuation after passengers panicked, fearing a terrorist gas attack.

But an official investigation into the incident at the Nikola Tesla Airport in the Serbian capital has revealed the fumes had escaped from a giant container of curry spices in the plane's cargo hold.

"The smell spread from the package of an aromatic food spice," confirmed the Serbian Ministry for the Protection of Human Environment.

Bug

China: Man sells 10,000 mosquito corpses

A Chinese man who set up an online business selling dead mosquitoes says he's received 10,000 orders in just two days.

Nin Nan, of Shanghai, came up with the idea of selling mosquitoes he killed to attract visitors to his online jewellery shop.

"I locked myself in the room, thinking hard of a promotion plan. With a 'pa' sound and a dead mosquito, I came up with this weird idea," he told Qianlong News.

Video

Sarkozy TV rebuke becomes web hit: Nicolas Sarkozy gets angry with a TV technician

Click here to see the video.

Footage of French President Nicolas Sarkozy expressing irritation at a TV technician ahead of an interview has become an instant internet success.

The video shows the employee clipping a microphone to Mr Sarkozy's tie, and not responding to a presidential "hello".

"It's a question of manners," Mr Sarkozy is heard muttering. "When you're invited, you're entitled to have people say 'hello' to you".

The video, posted on the Dailymotion website, has drawn about 500,000 hits.

Bandaid

Satire? President Bush decries supernova conspiracy theorists

President Bush denounced what he called "solar conspiracy theories" after the sun appeared to explode today.