Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin was among the most popular subjects typed into the Google search engine in Britain this year. A survey by the internet group found the life and death of Irwin was surpassed only by video searches, such as those on YouTube.com and queries about the soccer World Cup.

The dorsal fin used to terrify millions of moviegoers in the film Jaws has been sold for $A28,750 in an internet auction. The fin - metal covered with a rubber skin - was used to build suspense in the 1975 classic. Eleven bidders competed for the prop.

A judge in Painesville, Ohio, has offered Robert Clark, 38, the chance to swap a prison uniform for a dog costume. Clark, jailed for six months on animal cruelty charges after shooting his dog, could wipe out all but 10 days of the jail time if he dresses up as Safety Pup and joins police on school visits for safety campaigns.

Rosalind Allen-Narker, a New Zealand doctor fined $A352 this week for reading a book while driving from Timaru to Christchurch Airport in August told Timaru District Court she had just bought the page- turner that morning and it was too good to put down.

A Sao Paulo businessman in Cologne watched on the internet as a burglar robbed his house on the other side of the Atlantic. He called Sao Paulo police after getting a mobile phone alert from his security system. The burglar was caught red handed.

A man was left atop a seven-metre billboard for seven hours after an accomplice who was helping him steal its spotlight fled the scene. His partner ran off with the light and the ladder after police spotted them in southern Kuala Lumpur.

Durex is seeking people with the "right attributes" to test its latest condoms. New Zealand manager Victoria Potter said: "Durex wants to ensure that its condoms are best meeting the needs of New Zealanders - from delivering on sexual pleasure to keeping them safe."

Christer Fuglesang, who is set to become the first Swede in space, plans to take a frisbee with him on the space shuttle Discovery's next mission. The 49-year-old, once a national frisbee champion, hopes to set a record for maximum air time.

Russian customs officers smelt something fishy as a woman was about to board a plane for Moscow. They found a three-foot pike in her luggage, and from the fish spilled 25 large, uncut diamonds.

A man has been fined $279 for tossing a 27-kilogram pig over the counter of the Holiday Inn Express in West Point, Mississippi. Police say the man didn't know the employees of the hotel, and there was no evidence of intoxication. It is the fourth animal-tossing incident in West Point: twice a pig was tossed and two of the incidents involved possums.

An American Airlines flight was forced to make an emergency landing because of a passenger's flatulence. The Dallas-bound flight was diverted to Nashville after several passengers reported smelling burning _ which was the smell of matches a woman had been lighting to disguise the odour.

British angler Gary Hagues has landed the world's heaviest carp _ the same fish he caught to break the record a year ago. He hooked the 39.5 kilogram monster while on the holiday to France he won for catching it the last time. Experts said setting a record twice with the same fish was a million-to-one chance.

China has arrested the manager of a factory that used grease from swill, sewage and recycled industrial oil to make edible lard. In the latest health scare to hit the country, health officials also detected toxic pesticide in the lard.

Wayne Withers, 38, from Merthyr Tydfil, south Wales, spent £920 ($A2300) on 10 pieces of toast and intends to give them to his wife for Christmas. He bid on eBay for the toast slices, which are decorated with miniature portraits made from Marmite of celebrities such as Margaret Thatcher and Gordon Ramsay.

Thai police have threatened to charge a man with extortion if he continues to kidnap his neighbour's cats and demand ransom for their release. A woman reported the man to police after he nabbed her favourite cat. She claimed he had stolen several of her 50 felines and demanded ransoms of $3 to $10.

A Wisconsin man is trying to set the world record for the longest arm hair. Jon Sanford, 37, shampoos and conditions his arm hairs regularly. He has a strand measuring 10.4centimetres, which if ruled official by Guinness World Records, will top the previous record of 10.06 centimetres.

An 18th century Chinese famille rose "swallows" bowl has set a world record for a Qing porcelain piece, selling for $HK151.3 million ($A25 million) at auction in Hong Kong. The seller was art dealer Robert Chang. The buyer was his sister Alice Cheng.

Ziggy the cat used up at least one of his nine lives after surviving for 17 days without food on a voyage that took him from northern Israel to England. The skinny white cat made his epic trip as a stowaway in a container. Ziggy will now stay in quarantine in Britain for six months as a precaution against rabies.

Britain's unluckiest man has suffered his 17th accident, falling down a manhole. John Lyne's misfortunes have included lightning strikes, a rock fall, near drowning and car crashes. Mr Lyne, 54, of Stainforth, will be out of action for eight months after his latest mishap.

Health officials in Hong Kong want to introduce "eco-coffins" - made of corrugated cardboard and said to more than halve cremation times. Families of the dead in Hong Kong often have to wait more than 10 days for a cremation slot.

A New Zealand woman wants compensation after her parked car was sliced open from boot to bonnet at waist height by a passing tractor mower - while she was in it. She said she was so shocked she sat, frozen in her car, for 15 minutes afterwards. The arm on the tractor came within centimetres of hitting her.

China has opened a hotline for lesbians offering them psychological help and support. The free hotline, launched in Shanghai this week, is staffed by trained counsellors who are also lesbians. Homosexuality was considered a mental illness in China until 2001 and it remains a social taboo linked with loose morality.

German scientists have developed a walking stick that calls for an ambulance if its owner falls over. The "i-Stick" detects if it is horizontal and plays a message telling the owner. If it is not picked up, a message goes to a control room, from where an ambulance is called.

A Brazilian town's Happy Penis program is spicing up the sex lives of elderly men and their partners by giving out free Viagra. "Since we started the free distribution of sexual stimulants, our elderly population changed. They're much happier," Novo Santo Antonio Mayor Joao de Souza Luz said. Sixty-eight men over 60 have signed up.

James Bond fan David Fearn has changed his name - to all 21 official 007 film titles. The 23-year-old from Staffordshire is now called James Bond, with the film titles as middle names. "I wanted to be James Bond and now I am. It's the ultimate fantasy," he said.

A cafe in Kingsand, Cornwall, is displaying the left over crumbs of famous customers. Its Museum of Celebrity Leftovers includes rock star Pete Doherty's crumbs (from a cheese and tomato toastie) and those of photographer David Bailey.

A botched armed kidnapping of a teenager in Wichita, Kansas, ended with one of the assailants shooting himself in the groin. Police said the man stuck the gun into his waistband but it fired, shooting him in the left testicle. He cringed, causing the gun to fire again and strike him in the left calf.

Seeking the perfect gift for the golfer who has everything? Two US inventors, having seen golfers popping a tee in their mouth as they head to the next hole, have developed tees in mint, cherry, strawberry and grape flavours.

US Anglican churches have started a trend - using U2 songs in services. Around 150 Episcopal churches have held or plan "U2charists". Money from the collections is donated to charities linked to singer Bono's campaign against poverty and AIDS.

A buyer in Hong Kong has bought what may be the most expensive white truffle, paying �?25,000 ($A209,000) at a northern Italy auction for a 1.5-kilogram whopper. The truffle will be cooked by chefs at Hong Kong's Ritz-Carlton Hotel, and will be served at a charity dinner.

A Thai zoo, which is home to Chuang Chuang and Lin Hui the pandas, will play amorous videos to encourage them to mate. "They don't know how to mate, so we need to show the male how, through videos," a zoo spokesman said. "We'll play the video at the most comfortable and intimate time for him, perhaps after dinner."

Three muggers were thwarted when they tried to rob a pensioner in Suffolk. Their target was George Bayliss, 67, a former British light-middleweight amateur boxing champion and army combat instructor, who hit one of the men on the chin with a left hook.

New Zealand's first national Nutters' Conference this month aims to value the experience of madness, organisers say. Susie Crooks of mental health group, Lighthouse Trust, said the title had offended some but many others were supportive. She said the event was "run by nutters for the whole mental health sector".

Two police officers in New Mexico have sued Burger King, alleging personal injury and negligence after they were served hamburgers sprinkled with marijuana. "It gives a whole new meaning to the word 'whopper'," their lawyer said.

The German Army has called up a dead dog for national service. Helga Koehlke, 53, of Rostock, received an official army letter demanding that her pet Pekingese Tommy Jakob, who died almost blind in 2002, report for a military medical examination with his ID card and a pair of swimming shorts.

Urinals shaped like a woman's lips went on sale on eBay after being removed from a public toilet in Vienna following protests from women's groups, which said they were sexist. The lips have a red tongue and gleaming white teeth.

Turkish education authorities have decided students in the nation's public schools will be able to study chess as an official part of the curriculum, a move welcomed by Russia's former world champion Garry Kasparov.

Hundreds of people protested in Muzaffarpur village in eastern India after police arrived to arrest a three-month-old boy for robbery. The infant's name was subsequently dropped from a list of people accused of robbing bus passengers last week.

Saundra Naifeh, the Mayor of Edmond, Oklahoma, was left footsore and red-faced this week after personally distributing thousands of flyers discouraging under-age drinking only to find they mistakenly contained the number for a phone sex line.

An armed man went to the home of a drug dealer to collect on a debt and, when the dealer couldn't pay, he made off with the man's pet alligator. "I think he was going to hold (it) for ransom," said a sheriff in Frederic, Michigan.

Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden's former hide-out is being converted into a tourist resort, overlooking Tora Bora in Afghanistan. One-time warlord Gul Agha Sherazi, now a local governor, said: "We want it to be known for tourism, not terrorism. It was known as a picnic spot long before anyone had heard of Osama bin Laden."

An Auckland car salesman has written off a $170,000 Audi on a demo drive. Philip Pottinger was trying out the new Audi S6 Avant, which has a 5.2-litre, V10 motor. He rolled it six times, injuring a passenger. The car was the only one of its type in New Zealand. Pottinger, 27, faces a charge of reckless driving causing injury.

A man accused of robbing a bank in San Diego on Saturday made an unusual choice for a getaway vehicle. Police responding to reports of the robbery of a branch of the Union Bank of California arrested the man, carrying a backpack, after he boarded a bus.

The building and a fire engine were destroyed in a blaze at Arundel Fire Station, which West Sussex fire commanders admit was not fitted with a smoke alarm. Fire crews from neighbouring towns were called to fight the fire.

Paranoia is alive and well in Michigan, US. A plastic bottle with foul-smelling contents, found in a men's bathroom at Swartz Creek High School two weeks ago sparked an evacuation and a bomb squad visit. But lab results show that the bottle contained spoiled chocolate milk

A pigeon got stuck with a big bill when it became a pelican's lunch in London. The frantic pigeon struggled for more than 20 minutes before the pelican closed its bill and swallowed the smaller bird, shocking people strolling through St James' Park.

Two prisoners in an Ivory Coast jail who courted and fell in love through a peephole have been released for a few hours to get married. Roland Bouabre, who was serving a three-year term for stealing a bicycle, married Emilie Yobouet, who was serving a year for kidnapping a child.

The hunt is on for a member of the public who will become the new voice of Britain's Speaking Clock. People calling a hotline can have their voice recorded. The winner will be picked by judges, including current Speaking Clock Brian Cobby, 77, an actor who has had the job for 21 years. Organisers promised every accent would be considered.

Two Massachusetts schools have joined a growing list of US schools to ban the age-old game of tag for fear that children may get hurt and their parents will sue. McCarthy and Willett elementary schools have ordered children to invent a new no-contact version of the game for safety reasons.

Forget champagne and chocolates, the best food to perk up your sex life is cheese. A US study reveals that it contains more of the "love drug" phenylethylamine than chocolate.