Funny stories from around the world

Some more funny and random headlines from around the world:

• Canada notes have ‘wrong’ leaf: Canada’s new plastic banknotes feature Norway maple leaves, instead of the Canadian sugar maple leaf, according to botanists.
• Birds make music with bum notes: A piece of music that was composed by waiting for bird droppings to fall on giant sheets of manuscript paper in parks receives its premiere.
• Panetta given meat cleaver gift: Leon Panetta completes his final overseas trip as US defence secretary and his staff give him a plastic meat cleaver as a parting gift.
• Original Batmobile sold for $4.2m: The Batmobile used by actor Adam West in the original TV series of Batman sells for $4.2m (£2.6m) at a US auction.
• Pope posts first tweet in Latin: Pope Benedict XVI sends his first Twitter message in Latin, referring to Christian unity and the need to do justice.
• Library in Armstrong pledge prank: A sign in an Australian library promising to reshelve books by disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong in the fiction section causes an approving stir.
• Britain’s £1m and £100m banknotes: Why does the Bank of England have £1m notes?
• Surfer rides ‘highest ever’ wave: An American man rides what may be the highest wave ever caught by a surfer off the Portuguese coast.
• Pigeon ‘Bermuda Triangle’ solved: The mystery of why homing pigeons get lost when released from a particular location in the US may have been solved.
• Chinese devour Joyce translation: A Chinese version of James Joyce’s novel Finnegans Wake, which took eight years to translate, surprises by selling out its initial print run.
• Icelandic girl wins right to name: A 15-year-old Icelandic girl has won the right to use the name her mother gave her, after she took authorities to court over it.
• Romania campaign mocks UK anxiety: A Romanian media campaign called “Why don’t you come over?” pokes fun at British anxiety about a possible influx of Romanian job-seekers next year.
• Hartlepool 2-1 Notts County: Peter Hartley and James Poole score to give Hartlepool an appropriate victory against Notts County.
• Dolphins ‘saved’ by distress call: The distress call of a young dolphin is used to lure to safety a large pod of the animals in danger of being stranded off Western Australia.
• Etch A Sketch inventor dies at 86: The inventor of the classic toy Etch A Sketch, former electrical technician Andre Cassagnes, dies in France at the age of 86.
• Ahmadinejad offers to go to space: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad volunteers to become the first person sent into space by his country’s fledgling space programme.
• Paris women permitted trousers: The French government overturns a 200-year-old ban on women wearing trousers in the capital, Paris, dating from November 1800.
• World’s longest cat dies in US: The world’s longest domestic cat, a 48.5in (1.23m) Maine Coon named Stewie, of Reno Nevada, dies at the age of eight.
• French MP played Scrabble in debate: A French MP sparks a debate about the use of electronic devices in parliament in France after being photographed playing online Scrabble on his tablet.
• Kids app ‘translates’ grown-up paper: An app that transforms adult newspapers into child-friendly text and animations has been launched in Japan.
• South Korean ‘Les Mis’ a YouTube hit: A South Korean YouTube parody of Les Miserables – featuring snow-shovelling airmen, a cruel senior officer and a love struck conscript – becomes an online hit.
• Mandela granddaughters in TV show: Nelson Mandela’s granddaughters, Swati Dlamini and Zaziwe Dlamini-Manaway, are to star in a new reality television programme called Being Mandela.
• ‘Mafia father’ in TV talent show bid: An Italian mafia suspect gave out hundreds of phones to try to bring his daughter success in TV talent show voting, police believe.