Don't Panic! Lighten Up!S


Evil Rays

Bin Laden pops in to say 'Boo!'


Smiley

UK: Panto pirates told to report their plastic swords to the police

If you're in the Cornish village of Carnon Downs and encounter a blood-thristy band of sword-wielding pirates, don't worry. The police know all about them.

For while the pirates are only amateur actors from the local panto, they have been ordered to alert the police that they are using weapons - even though the swords are made of nothing more deadly than plastic.

Not only that, but because of health and safety regulations they have had to promise to keep the pretend cutlasses under lock and key when they are not being used.

©Unknown
Health and safety risk: Drama group member John Barker with one of the prop swords that had to be reported to the police

Hourglass

Boomerang comes back after 25 years

Brisbane, Australia - Boomerangs really do come back - even after 25 years. Officials in an Australian Outback town were surprised when a boomerang arrived in the post. Along with it was a note from a guilt-ridden American who said he stole it years earlier from a museum in the mining town of Mount Isa, and now felt rotten about it.

"I removed this back in 1983 when I was younger and dumber," said the note, according to Mount Isa Mayor Ron McCullough. "It was the wrong thing to do, I'm sorry, and I'm going to send it back," said the note.

Eye 2

'Killer' caught out after confessing to cats

An alleged killer confessed to his pet cats - unaware police were eavesdropping on his conversation.

David Henton was suspected of battering his partner, Joyce Sutton, to death as she lay sleeping. But police could not prove it, so they bugged his house, a court was told.

He was recorded talking to his pets and apparently let the cat out of the bag.

Smiley

Clowns scare kids: They're 'universally disliked by children,' British researchers discover

Bad news for Coco and Blinko - children don't like clowns, and even older kids are scared of them.

That's the finding of a poll of youngsters by researchers from the University of Sheffield who were examining how to improve the decor of hospital children's wards.

©EPA
Maybe that's why Jobito Globitos (shown here at the XXII International Clown Convention in Mexico City in October) is tearing his hair out: Researchers have found that clowns scare the Globitos out of kids.

Penis Pump

Be Afraid! Sex toy triggers bomb scare in Sweden

Stockholm - A Swedish bomb squad called out to disarm a suspicious package on Wednesday did not find a ticking bomb. But they did find a vibrating sex toy.

A janitor alerted police after he found the package in a garage of an apartment building in Goteborg, the country's second-largest city, police spokesman Jan Strannegard said.

Smiley

Italian artist covers Spanish Steps with 500,000 colored balls

Italian artist Graziano Cecchini along with several helpers released over half a million brightly colored plastic balls down Rome's landmark Spanish Steps (Piazza Spagna) on Wednesday.

Cecchini, 54, who gained notoriety by coloring the Trevi Fountain with red dye in late October last year, said the latest spectacle was intended to be a denouncement of current social and political life in Italy.

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Binoculars

Watch What You Put on Trailer Hitches

Richmond, Virginia - It's one thing to dangle fuzzy dice from a rear view mirror, but decorating a trailer hitch with a large pair of rubber testicles might be a bit much in Virginia.

People

Chinese boy turns to police to evade piano lessons

A nine-year-old boy from the northeast Chinese city of Changchun took drastic steps to avoid music lessons - he told police his father was planning to sell him, the China Daily paper said on Tuesday.

An investigation later revealed that the boy, Taotao, had lied to get out of the piano lessons that his father had arranged for him.

Smiley

Germany: Boss fires three workers for not smoking

The owner of a small German computer company has struck a blow for smokers' rights.

The manager of a 10-person IT company in Buesum, says he fired three workers who requested a non-smoking environment, as their non-smoking was causing disruptions.