Odd News

ELLENWOOD, Ga. - Someone made off with loot from a Georgia church but also left behind an apology. A note scrawled on the wall said: "Sorry but I'm poor. Forgive me Lord." The Rev. Roger Davis tells WSB-TV that expensive equipment including microphones and a laptop containing important records were stolen over the weekend from Berean Baptist Church. The robber broke locks and the church's safe, but it was empty. Full Story »

FRIERSON, La. - Flushed evidence doesn't go far if your toilet's on a septic system. DeSoto Parish sheriff's Lt. Toni Joe Morris said Tuesday that deputies brought in a backhoe when drug agents raided a home and business and met the owner coming out of a bathroom. Full Story »

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. Full Story »

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). Full Story »

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. Full Story »

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. Full Story »

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. Full Story »

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Herman Van Rompuy, the European Union's new president, may not be very well known around the world but he's already winning fans in Japan -- as a poet rather than a politician. Full Story »

GIBSON, La. - A real estate agent showing a house got to the basement and found about 100 human bones in a corner. James Kenny, a forensic investigator with the Terrebonne Parish Coroner's Office, says the bones found Saturday were so old that dirt had saturated the marrow inside them. He says they probably are remains of Native Americans buried long before the house was built. Full Story »

BETHLEHEM, Pa. - An eastern Pennsylvania prosecutor wants charges dropped against a couple who refused to pay a tip at a restaurant where they said they got poor service. Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli said he's recommending that Bethlehem police drop the theft of services charges. Full Story »

BERLIN (Reuters) - A car expert says he has tracked down Hitler's favorite Mercedes to a garage near the town that helped the Austrian-born Fuehrer become a German citizen. Full Story »

CARACAS (Reuters) - Unfazed by a recession and rampant inflation, image-conscious Venezuelans show no signs of cutting back on the facelifts, liposuction, and breast augmentation that have become de rigueur beauty treatments. Full Story »

TAIPEI (Reuters) - A man in Taiwan was robbed of more than $2 million in cash that he had just withdrawn from the bank, a police official said on Tuesday. Full Story »

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US Santas want swine flu vaccine so that sneezing children don't give them an unwelcome present this Christmas. Full Story »

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. - Sparkly reindeer-dung necklaces are going on sale at an Illinois zoo that hopes to attract the same holiday shoppers who swept up its dung Christmas ornaments last year. Full Story »

WARWICK, R.I. - Police say a 17-year-old Warwick boy who skipped school to rob a bank has been arrested after leaving fingerprints on the threatening note he passed to the teller. Warwick police Capt. Sean Collins said the boy handed a note riddled with misspellings to a teller Thursday, demanding money or "everyone will be shot." Full Story »