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Health

India may no longer require female civil servants to detail menstrual cycle

The Indian government says it will review new appraisal forms requiring female civil servants to reveal details of their menstrual cycles.

Star

Sheriff Gives Himself a Ticket

GREEN BAY, Wis. - Brown County Sheriff Dennis Kocken didn't have to write himself a ticket. But he says it was the right thing to do.

Star

Squirrel rapper releases hip-hop Wordsworth

A meditation on the enduring beauty of daffodils, it is not an obvious subject for the macho, posturing world of rap music.

But now William Wordsworth's most famous poem has been reworked and rewritten in a hip-hop style - complete with drum beat and quick-fire rhymes - in an effort to draw a younger generation of visitors to the Lake District.

Black Cat

Mystery cat takes regular bus to the shops

Bus drivers have nicknamed a white cat Macavity after it has started using the No 331 several mornings a week.

©Daily Mail
The cat, nicknamed Macavity, has one blue eye and one green eye

Bulb

Mouse Delays Vietnamese Flight 4 Hours

HANOI, Vietnam - A fugitive mouse delayed the departure of a Japan-bound airliner for more than four hours Sunday as technicians hunted down the potential threat, airline officials said.

Coffee

The Perfect Bacon Buttie

Scientists believe they have come up with a formula to create the perfect bacon buttie.

The two most important aspects are crispiness and crunchiness, according to a new study.

It revealed the crunching sound while eating rashers should ideally measure 0.5 decibels.

They should also break when 0.4 Newtons of force is applied through chewing, the researchers said.

Butties were tested using a high-tech computer that measures food texture, while panels of 50 volunteers judged the butties for taste, texture and flavour.

Gear

The Horror! One of the Released Marines says: "I was tortured! They gave me a fake Hugo Boss shirt!"

The gifts the Iranians gave the crew were a load of junk - and nothing in comparison to what they stole, including Arthur Batchelor's iPod, he said yesterday.

Before their release the Brits were given shabby grey three-piece suits made by a local designer and a fake Hugo Boss shirt.

They also got a "granny bag" full of tat including toffees with a label saying "containing pistachio", a CD and DVD that don't work and 11 books.

These were in English and mostly aimed at trying to convert the reader to Islam with titles like Youth and Morals by Sayid Lari.

Calculator

Can this note stamp out corruption in a land where it's the norm?

In the secret language of corruption in India, an official expecting a bribe will ask for Mahatma Gandhi to "smile" at him. The revered leader of the independence movement is on all denominations of rupee notes.

With rampant dishonesty ingrained in the bureaucratic culture, an anticorruption group has decided to interpret the euphemism literally by issuing a zero-rupee note.

A direct copy of the 50-rupee note, including Gandhi's portrait, it is designed to be handed out to officials who demand backhanders.

In the place of the usual promise of redemption by the central bank governor, the new pledge is: "I promise to neither accept nor give bribe."

Wolf

Easter Bunny Arrested, Charged With Stealing

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Police said an 18-year-old who worked as the Easter Bunny at a northwest Columbus mall allegedly stole a woman's credit card and used it while on the job.

Life Preserver

Slovenian ends Amazon swim after 65 days

After 3,272 miles of exhaustion, sunburn, delirium and piranhas, a 52-year-old Slovenian successfully completed a swim down the Amazon river Saturday that could set a new world record for distance - one he's broken three times already.

After nine weeks, Martin Strel arrived near the city of Belem, the capital of the jungle state of Para, ending a swim almost as long as the drive from Miami to Seattle. Strel averaged about 50 miles a day since beginning his odyssey at the source of the world's second-longest river in Peru on Feb. 1.

By Thursday evening, he was struggling with dizziness, vertigo, high blood pressure, diarrhea, nausea and delirium, his Web site said. But despite having difficulty standing and being ordered by the doctor not to swim, Strel was obsessed with finishing the course and insisted on night swimming.