Odd News

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama is getting used to leaving events before they end, even when he does not have to.

LYON, France (AFP) - A suspected bank robber may not be most girls' idea of Mr Right, but women are proposing marriage to a jailed French van driver accused of stealing million of euros, his lawyer said Monday.

LONDON (AFP) - A hotel chain offered Tuesday to take some of the stress out of Christmas this year with a special room rate in Britain for mother-in-laws.

OSLO (Reuters) - The people of Bergen rolled out the cookie dough Monday as local police tried to sniff out vandals who destroyed the Norwegian city's traditional Christmas decoration -- a town of gingerbread houses.

NASHVILLE, Tennessee (Reuters) - A judge on Friday blocked a Tennessee law that allowed people to bring handguns into restaurants and bars.

LONDON (Reuters) - A first edition of Charles Darwin's "On the Origin of Species," which had been kept in a toilet bookcase for years, will go on sale this week and is expected to fetch 40-60,000 pounds ($66-100,000).

BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Santa Claus should avoid kissing children and shaking their hands to prevent spreading the flu and should get vaccinated against the illness, Hungary's state health authority said.

MANILA (AFP) - Bizarre candidates such as the "Ultimate Messiah" and a man who crows like a chicken are seeking their moments of fame by making unlikely bids for president in next year's Philippine elections.

KATMANDU, Nepal - A Nepalese man who climbed Mt. Everest at age 76 and became the oldest person to conquer the world's highest peak celebrated Monday official recognition of his achievement by Guinness World Records.

ZAGREB (AFP) - The Croatian first division match between Sibenik and Medjimurje Cakovec will be remembered for a cat which earned the visiting team's goalkeeper a yellow card, press reports said on Monday.

WELLINGTON (Reuters) - A Santa in New Zealand with a droopy eye has received a NZ$100,000 ($74,000) face-lift in the run-up to Christmas so that his aging face does not scare children.

HONG KONG (AFP) - An increasing number of mainland Chinese migrants to Hong Kong are changing the spelling of their surnames to avoid discrimination in the former British colony, a report said Monday.

MELBOURNE (AFP) - A rogue kangaroo tried to drown a dog and then viciously attacked its owner when he launched a rescue bid, paramedics said on Monday.

LONDON (AFP) - A first edition of Charles Darwin's seminal "On the Origin of Species" will be sold this week after it was found in a family's toilet in southern Britain, an auction house said Sunday.

BEIJING (AFP) - A Chinese legislator fed up with lavish banquets and official wining and dining has proposed making the "squandering of public funds" a crime, according to state press.

MADRID (AFP) - Cash-strapped Spaniards are pulling their hair out over the economic crisis -- literally.

PARIS (AFP) - Dozens of shoe addicts have taken part in the National Stiletto Championship on an indoor track in the old stock exchange building in central Paris.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - North Pole elves have good reason to celebrate again, thanks to a decision by the U.S. Postal Service to resume a Santa Claus letter program that's thrilled children from around the world for decades.

LOS ANGELES - Federal officials say they arrested a man who strapped 15 live lizards to his chest to get through customs at Los Angeles International Airport.

PHILADELPHIA - A university's requirement that overweight undergraduates take a fitness course to receive their degrees has raised the hackles of students and the eyebrows of health and legal experts.

TORONTO - A tourism website has put an addition to the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto on its second annual list of the "World's Top 10 Ugly Buildings."

TORONTO - Have no fear, redheads - it appears this Nov. 20, you were more likely to be hugged than harassed, consoled rather than kicked.

ROME - Two fingers and a tooth removed from Galileo Galilei's corpse in a Florentine basilica in the 18th century and given up for lost have been found again, a Florence museum said Friday.

PARIS (AFP) - A humble if eye-pleasing umbrella stand once owned by Yves Saint Laurent fetched an amazing 90,000 euros (134,000 dollars) Friday at the close of a sale of the last belongings of the late couturier and his partner Pierre Berge.

KATHMANDU (AFP) - Nepal's former king has been given his first passport aged 63, a year-and-a-half after stepping down from the throne, the government said Friday.

MEXICO CITY (AFP) - Suspect your significant other might be cheating on you? In Mexico, numerous laboratories are now offering a way to find out for sure -- DNA tests.

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Swedish police have arrested two North Korean diplomats on suspicion of smuggling 230,000 cigarettes into the Nordic country, the Swedish Customs Office said Friday.

LIMA (Reuters) - Peruvian police said on Thursday they had broken up a gang that allegedly killed dozens of people and sold their fat to buyers who used it to make cosmetics.

NEW YORK - A 12 pence Canadian stamp more than a century old has sold for US$260,000 at a New York auction, the highest price ever paid for a single Canadian stamp.