Most Emailed Odd News

MELBOURNE, Australia - A pet rabbit is credited with saving a couple from a fire that swept through their home in the southern city of Melbourne.

SAO PAULO, Brazil - An 11-year old boy is in Brazil's media spotlight after sinking his teeth into the neck of a dog that attacked him. Local newspapers reported on Thursday that Gabriel Almeida was playing in his uncle's backyard in the city of Belo Horizonte when a pit bull named Tita lunged at him and bit him in the left arm.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. - Ready for the latest in spa pampering? Prepare to dunk your tootsies in a tank of water and let tiny carp nibble away.

CLARKS SUMMIT, Pa. - Picking up hitchhikers can be risky, but this one in northeast Pennsylvania was a bird of a different feather. Jerry Dimick and a friend were driving along Route 307 near Clarks Summit on Wednesday when they spotted a peacock standing by the edge of the road.

ROME (Reuters) - When Don Corleone's daughter got married in the film "The Godfather," the guests kissed his hand and he dispensed favours because no Sicilian Mafia boss could refuse a request on his daughter's wedding day.

WELLINGTON (AFP) - A New Zealand judge has ordered a name change for an embarrassed nine-year-old girl called Talula Does The Hula From Hawaii, a local newspaper reported Thursday.

GREEN BAY, Wis. - Bob and Leona Ehrfurth say the noise that's been plaguing them for two years sounds something like a rumbling motor, with a subtle vibration that won't quit. Then it stops — especially when they try to show city officials or acoustic experts what they're hearing.

PORTLAND, Ore. - Portland police are not above the parking laws, even if they're hungry.

LIMA (Reuters) - A naked model photographed using Peru's flag as a saddle while mounted on a horse will face charges that could put her in jail for up to four years for offending patriotic symbols, the country's defense minister said on Wednesday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A three-member U.S. ballistic missile crew fell asleep while in possession of classified launch codes for nuclear missiles, the Air Force said on Thursday.

OMAHA, Neb. - Humane society workers have found 117 cats, a raccoon and a rabbit in a north Omaha house. The discovery came Wednesday after Council Bluffs, Iowa, police caught the 54-year-old woman who lives at the house reportedly stealing cat food. Officials say she smelled like cat urine.

TERRELL, N.C. - After catching one of two people wanted in a series of break-ins, deputies in North Carolina let their fingers do the chasing to catch a second suspect.

BEIJING (Reuters) - Don't ask a tourist's age or wage, steer clear of sex and avoid religion: what many Chinese consider idle chit-chat has now become the latest area of censure in Beijing as it prepares for an influx of Olympic visitors.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. - State police say they arrested a man early Tuesday whose blood alcohol level was 0.491 percent — the highest ever recorded in Rhode Island for someone who wasn't dead.

SAN DIEGO (Reuters) - Like wannabe Dark Knights answering the call of the "bat signal," throngs of grown men wearing tights and capes converge this week to revel in all manner of superhero lore and merchandising at the 39th annual Comic Con Convention.

NEW YORK, July 21 - A New Jersey man trying to exterminate insects in his apartment blew it up instead, the New York Daily News reported on Monday.

SYDNEY (AFP) - A pet rabbit in Australia was credited with saving its owners Thursday after scratching at the door of their bedroom as their home burned, emergency workers said.

BEIJING (Reuters) - Three Hong Kong children have been sentenced to more than three years for the armed hold-up of a jewellery shop, a newspaper said on Thursday, with the court saying the stiff sentence was in the public interest.

LEBANON, Ind. - A woman accidentally stabbed herself in the foot with a 3-foot-long sword while performing a Wiccan good luck ritual at a central Indiana cemetery.

SYDNEY (Reuters) - An Australian man's dare went horribly wrong when he tried to play chicken with cars on a freeway wearing only his underwear. The 18 year old was critically injured after being hit by a four-wheel drive on a freeway in the southern city of Melbourne in the early hours of Wednesday, police said in a statement.

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. - A Minnesota high school teacher has lasted 20 hours on a carnival ride to win the Ride the Tide Challenge at the Mall of America.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Reuters) - A Canadian bank is collecting tens of thousands of unwanted tennis balls, which it says it will recycle to reduce noise levels in primary schools.

ROME (Reuters) - An Italian funfair closed an attraction where a life-sized dummy was "executed" in an electric chair on Thursday following protests by opponents of capital punishment.

ATHENS (Reuters) - A Greek court has dismissed a request by residents of the Aegean island of Lesbos to ban the use of the word lesbian to describe gay women, according to a court ruling made public on Tuesday.