A selction of odd stories from around the world
Amsterdam: The Dutch Labour Party wants to pass a law making unsolicited toe-licking an offence after police were unable to prosecute a would-be Casanova with a taste for female toes because he had committed no crime.
A police spokesman said yesterday a man had been detained after women sunning themselves in Rotterdam's parks and beaches claimed he had sneaked up on them and begun to lick their toes.
The man, reported to be about 35, has apparently been indulging his passion for three years.
"The officers had to let him go. Licking a stranger's toes is rather unusual, but there is really nothing criminal about it," the spokesman said.
Mr Peter van Heemst, a Labour member of parliament, said a new law was necessary to criminalise unsolicited toe-licking.
"It is a violation of one's privacy and one's physical integrity. The norm ... is that no one should touch your body if you haven't asked them first."
London: Wanted: a court jester to fill a post vacant for 350 years since England executed its king. English Heritage said in an advertisement in The Times applicants for the competition this weekend should bring their own costumes with bells, but said it would provide a bladder on a stick - a traditional jester's prop.
Contrary to the image of a buffoon, court jesters had to be highly astute, able to lift the spirits of their monarchs and risked death if they failed - as many did.
The duties of the last court jester, whose job ended in 1649 when Charles I lost his head, included making him laugh and providing a distraction from politics.
This time, however, English Heritage said the winner would not risk decapitation, but would still have to provide trenchant wit. Would-be fools should attend a public audition today at Stoneleigh Park in central England, wearing their costumes.
Madrid: A German prisoner in Madrid and his girlfriend glued their hands together during a jail visit in an attempt to fight the man's possible extradition to Germany, judicial sources said.
The pair were taken to hospital, where doctors were considering whether to operate or use a powerful solvent to separate the 39-year-old man's left hand from the woman's right.
The glue is a type normally used in car repairs.
Spanish police arrested the 39-year-old man in the southern city of Cadiz in April on request from Germany, where he faces accusations of smuggling women from Eastern Europe to force them into prostitution.
Kuala Lumpur: A Malaysian postman kept 21,000 letters undelivered for up to four years in a room of his house, newspapers said Thursday. Police are now searching for the missing man.
The former employee of Pos Malaysia Bhd, fired in March, left mail such as telephone bills, bank statements and magazines in a room of a house in which he once lived in a Kuala Lumpur suburb. Some of the letters were posted four years ago.
"Most of our postmen are dedicated and loyal, but there are a few who spoil our reputation," Mr Ikmal Hijaz Hashim, head of state-controlled Pos Malaysia, was quoted by the Star newspaper as saying.
Beijing: The world's hairiest man, Chinese rock singer Yu Zhenhuan, underwent ear surgery in Shanghai yesterday to remove hair that was impairing his hearing, the Xinhua news agency reported.
Doctors said Yu had complained of constant earaches and nausea and had lost one-third of his hearing, Xinhua said. Yu was recognised in 2002 as the world's hairiest man by the Guinness Book of Records, Xinhua said.
Yu's body, save the palms of his hands and the soles of his feet, is covered with an average of 41 hairs per 1 sq cm (0.16 sq inch), a condition doctors term "atavism", it said.
The 26-year-old Yu made his entertainment debut at the age of six in a movie about "a hairy child's adventure".