The people who run the underground in Prague are doing their bit to help the city's singletons by creating a "love train".
Under new plans there'll be designated sections in trains where passengers looking for a partner can meet, flirt and possibly find love.
Train companies hope to launch the idea at the end of the year - they're currently deciding which carriages would be more suitable for dating, how many to have and what kind of signs to put up.
A Brazillian woman has named all her children - all nine daughters and six sons - Walter, after her husband.
It started with a deal made between the couple when she fell pregnant with their first child that she should name it after him, regardless of whether it was boy or girl.
It turned up to be a girl who they called Walterlucia Maria.
Since then they've had another 14 children and followed on with the trend. The girls have been given names including Walterlivia, Walterlenia and Walterlonia while the boys are all simply Walter.
Witches have been banned from flying on their broomsticks above 150 metres in Swaziland.
Anyone caught hovering above that limit faces arrest.. and a fine of £35,000. There are no penalties for witches wanting to flying below that altitude, though.
Witchcraft is taken seriously in the African country where many people believe in the power of black magic.
A New York police officer who climbed a tree to rescue a stranded cat ended up getting stuck up there himself.
The officer who'd climbed 30ft up a tree outside a primary school to get to the feline - was hit by a sudden spell of vertigo and had to make his own emergency call.
The fire brigade arrived with a ladder to get him and the cat safely down again, cheered on by a large group of local school kids.
A 4 year old boy has been elected Mayor of a small town in Minnesota.
Every year the 22 people who live in Dorset pick a name out of a hat.. and whoever it is becomes mayor for a year.
This year it was 4 year old Bobbie Tufts whose interests include playing, dancing, singing and his girlfriend Sophia.
Mayor Tufts also likes chatting to his townspeople, guiding them safety across the road and giving out advice about the right bait to use for fishing.
With bizarre local laws costing British tourists thousands of pounds in fines every year when they go abroad, a website has put together a handy list of the some of the things you can't do overseas that are perfectly legal back here.
They include wearing high heels in Greece, chewing gum in Singapore, and feeding the pigeons at St Mark's Square in Venice.
You'll also get into trouble if you step on money while in Thailand or run out of fuel in Germany.
Scratch and sniff cards have prompted the evacuation of loads of building in a US city centre.
People were ordered out of their homes and offices in downtown Great Falls in Montana when a strong smell of rotten egs and gas started wafting through the air.
But the potent whiff turned out to be coming from several boxes of old scratch n' sniff cards that had been chucked into nearby bins.
The smell was released as the bins were being emptied into rubbish trucks.
In just two weeks, more than 78,000 people from 120 countries have applied for a chance to live on Mars as part of a new reality tv project.
The idea is to set up a human settlement on the red planet by 2023 with every part of the mission filmed.
There will be a two year selection process, ending with an audience vote. Successful candidates will then have to train for another seven years before leaving earth forever as part of the Mars One project.
A gardener has spent three years and 20 thousand pounds building Britain's biggest water-powered cuckoo clock in his back garden.
The 25ft wooden clock is the size of a house and comes complete with a 3ft wooden cuckoo which pops out every hour and chimes with the help of a pipe organ and music box.
It is powered using water from a passing stream and a complex system of cantilevers, counterweights and pulleys.
Great news for busy or lazy men - a shirt that doesn't need to be washed or ironed for up to 100 days has been invented by a company in the US.
It is made using a wool mix which the makers say is far more efficient at absorbing moisture than other fabrics.
During testing, 15 people around the world wore the shirts while doing everything from backpacking in the Andes to dancing in sweaty nightclubs. The company says it doesn't expect anyone to actually wear their shirt 100 days in a row but they could if they wanted to.
Staff at an estate agents in New York are being offered a pay rise if they get a tattoo of the company's green and black logo.
So far 40 workers at Rapid Realty have shown their commitment to the firm by getting an inking costing around £200.
In return, they have been handed a 15% increase in their wages for their troubles. Their boss has yet to get one of the tattoos himself.
A man who is addicted to eating insects says he's consumed more than 5,000 species including cockroaches, grasshoppers and scorpions.
David Gracer from Rhode Island in the States says he started the habit about 11 years ago and his addiction has grown.
He now keeps a constant stock of insects at home.. with more than 12,000 in a basement freezer and reckons it's not that different to eating things like crabs, shrimp and lobster.
A professional jigsaw maker - who had spent 35 days putting together the world's biggest ever hand-cut wood puzzle could only watch as the whole thing collapsed around him.
It happened just a day after Dave Evans had put the final segment in place in the 6m by 2.5metre jigsaw which was resting on a huge tilted frame designed to keep it safely up.
He now has just a week to put it back together before the puzzle - of images from the Queen's diamond jubilee - is due to go on display at Sandringham.
A cruise ship company has insured its fleet of boats against damage by the Loch Ness Monster.
Jacobite Cruises which is based in the Scottish Highlands - will get a six figure payout if Nessie chooses to appear and target one of its three boats on the loch.
The owners say they don't know what the odds of it actually happening are, but they'd look really silly if it did and they weren't covered.
A huge houseboat which looks just like Captain Jack Sparrows pirate ship has gone up for sale in the States with a pricetag of £50,000.
The 50 ft boat holds up to 30 people and is described by its owner as "an awesome party boat".
It's got two bedrooms, two bathrooms and looks just like a Hollywood set complete with tattered sails, skull and crossbone flags and all the pirate-type accessories you'd need for a life on the high seas.
The world's first vending machine for dogs has been unveiled in London, and it makes hungry canines work for their treat selection.
Instead of putting some loose change in a slot, dogs are challenged to pull a bone attached a lever, which sends a tennis ball out of the top of the machine.
They then have to fetch the ball and return it to the machine before they're rewarded.
The machine also makes noises like a cat's meow to attract customers.
A woman's told how she came face to face with an escaped tiger in the toilets at a circus in the States.
Jenna Krehbiel found the animal when she took her three year old daughter to the bathrooms during the show in Kansas.
It's thought the animal had wandered off after its part of the performance, and ended up in the ladies loos.
Ms Krehbiel says she tried to stay calm and just walked back out. Her daughter wanted to know if the tiger had washed its hand.
24th April
Researchers reckon the way you sneeze can reveal your real personality.
A study in America's found outgoing people generally have loud, dramatic sneezes, while those who are shy try to hold back and end up with a stifled squeak.
The experts say the bone structure of the face and shape of the nose play a role in the different sneezing styles and that people often develop a sneezing technique in their youth which stays the same into adulthood.
The ultimate bird house has been created by a Swedish designer.. complete with infinity dipping pool, gym and a mezzanine master bedroom.
The two storey home also has an open-plan living area with sofa and coffee table, and a kitchen complete with sink and in-built bird feeder. There is garden furniture and a lawn outside, as well as a predator alarm for peace of mind.
The designers hope it will inspire people to build their own.
Where you stand in a lift reflects your social standing according to new research.
A study of dozens of people on dozens of lift rides found more senior men positioned themselves towards the back, younger men tended to plant themselves in the middle while women of all ages stood at the front, closest to the door.
Women would also avoid looking in the mirror or making eye contact with other users unless they were only travelling with other women.
Apparently decisions on where to stand are based on a micro social hierarchy established within seconds of entering the lift.
A beauty pageant with a difference has taken place in Mexico where eight pensioners have been battling out to be named Queen of the Elderly.
To enter, women must be between 65 and 75 and be prepared to wear a tiara and posh frock and be interviewed on stage about their lives and what being a senior citizen means in the modern day. There's no swim suit section.
The winner gets a a handbag and some jewellery.
A new beer's been created by a brewery in Japan using elephant dung.
It's made by grinding down coffee beans that have passed through the animal's digestive system to make what it describes as a "chocolate stout".
Testers say it has a combination of bitter, sweet and mellow, and the first batch sold out in minutes.
Its makers were inspired by the success of a brand of coffee which is made in the same way.
Hundreds of players from around the globe have gathered in Florida for the Quidditch World Cup...
The game from the Harry Potter books.. which uses broomsticks and balls called quaffles was transferred into reality around eight years ago and now has thousands of devotees around the world.
It's been developed into a mash up of lacrosse, rugby and dodge ball, with players waddling around on brooksticks as they battle to score by throwing the quaffles through ringed hoops.
The world's only cat theatre has been given a grand reopening in Moscow after a year of reonvation work.
Hundreds turned out to watch the first performance with a cast of dozens of felines taking to the stage for a series of acts and displays in time with music.
Cats performers were seen walking tightropes, climbing poles, spinning balls, and clambering along moving objects.
The theatre was founded by a father and son in 1990 who say the animals enjoy it and have each found a place in the show with their individual talents.
A town in Louisiana is to ban saggy trousers.
Residents of Terrebone Parish voted 8-1 in favour of outlawing the baggy clothing.
First-time ban-breakers will be fined $50 or around £33, while repeat offenders will be charged $100 and could face 16 hours of community service.
Parish council leaders say there's nothing positive about saggy pants, and they just want boys and girls to "look decent".
An Iranian scientist claims he's invented a machine which can predict what'll happen in the next five to eight years of you life.
Ali Razeghi says his Time Traveling Machine brings the future to you, taking readings from your touch and then giving a print out of its predictions.
The 27-year-old says the invention works by using a set of complex algorithims and has a 98 percent accuracy rate.
A woman - disappointed by her boyfriend's attempt at a marriage proposal - is now offering lessons to other men in how to pop the question properly.
34 year old Sam Sheppard from Monmothshire turned down her boyfriends because she says it felt more like he was asking her out for pizza.
Now she's set up a business offering advice.. with a number of packages available ranging in price from £10 for a few ideas to £10,000 where absolutely everything is organised for you.
A team of Japanese students have invented a coat designed to make single men feel like they're being cuddled by a girlfriend.
It even whispers sweet nothings in your ear for the full effect.
The Girlfriend Coat - which looks fairly normal from the outside has a special belt which creates the sensation that the wearer is being hugged from behind. It also comes with wired up headphones which play recordings of a female voice saying stock phrases like "Sorry I'm late".
A man has flown four miles over a shark infested ocean using only helium balloons!
Matt Silver-Vallance took around an hour to cross from South Africa's Robben Island to Cape Town wearing a wetsuit and a harness attached to 160 balloons.
He also had weighted bags which he could drop to adjust his height, as well as an air gun and spear. He ended up having to burst about 35 balloons after getting a bit too close to the water for comfort.
International Pillow Fight Day has been marked in London with an almighty pillow fight in Trafalgar Square.
Thousands of people armed with feather filled pillows battled it out with complete strangers at the famous landmarkwith the scene being echoed in more than 100 cities around the world.
Organisers says the day is a way to get people outsideand to relieve stress.
The only rules are that you're not allowed to hit anyone with a camera or who's not armed with a pillow.
After yesterday's cow's milk vodka, today weird news is all about Pizza-flavoured beer!
A couple in the US created the taste-combination while entering local home brew competitions, mixing tomatoes, basil, oregano and garlic during the brewing process.
It has been a massive success in the states and now it's going on sale around the world.
The creators say Mamma Mia Pizza beer tastes like normal beer when it's on your tongue but the aftertaste is of pizza toppings.
A British farmer has created the world's first vodka made from cow's milk.
Jason Barber spent three years trying to perfect the tipple with the help of the 250 cows on his farm in Dorset.
It's made by separating the whey and then fermenting it using yeast to covert the sugar into alcohol. That's then distilled and blended to produce his signature Black Cow vodka.
Food critics describe it as smooth with a distinct creamy character.
A 5 star hotel on Australia's Gold Coast is offering a 350 pound per night luxury package for DOGS...
As part of the deal guests at the Palazzo Versace hotel get a "superior pet room" for two people and a dog. It features a designer futon dog bed, Versace crystal food and water bowls, gourmet pet food on room service, and a dedicated concierge available for walkies.
The hotel says it came up with the idea after requests from rich guests who didn't want to put their dogs in kennels while they holidayed.
TVs which allow you to SMELL the programme you're watching are a step closer to your living room thanks to work by a team at Tokyo university.
At an international conference recently they unveiled their new "smelling screen" which makes odours waft out from a spot on the screen showing the corresponding object.
It works by feeding smells from gel pellets into four air streams which are blown across the displays surface.
Three friends are celebrating a lottery win in the States after a message in a fortune cookie predicted they'd scoop the jackpot.
James Scoles from Alaska spotted the message "you're going to win the lottery" when he opened the cookie on March 15th.
Less than 24 hours he and two mates found out they were a million dollars, or £660,000 richer.
James says he plans to spend his win on honey baked ham, a smoke turnkey and some good barbecue sauce.
You've heard of sing a long cinema screenings of films like Sound of Music and Mama Mia.
Now a swimming pool in Yorkshire is getting in on the act, with a swim-alongs showing of various water based films including Jaws!.
A large screen's been installed at one end of the pool at Bramley Baths and viewers can either watch while bobbing around in the water.. or from the front row balcony seats in the dry.
Speakers, meanwhile, stream the sound track both under and over the water.
Solving puzzles or tricky anagrams is the best way to get rid of a song which gets stuck in your head and plays on loop.
Researchers reckon taxing your brain with mental challenges can force the "internal jukebox" in your mind out of working memory and allow it to be filled with less annoying thoughts instead.
But the puzzle can't be too hard or too easy. They also found that Lady Gaga songs were most likely to get stuck in people's heads.
An award celebrating the the Oddest Book Title of the Year has been won by a book offering advice on how to protect chickens from goblins.
Goblinproofing One's Chicken Coop got 38 percent of the online votes. It came just ahead of another title called - How Tea Cosies Changed the World which took 31 percent.
Other titles in the running including Lofts of North America: Pigeon Lofts and a guidebook called "How To Sharpen Pencils".
A train driver in the West Midlands has earned cheers from his passengers after broadcasting a message on his tannoy asking a woman on her mobile in first class in the middle of the train to "stop shouting as it's annoying the other passengers"
West Midlands trains says such messages are 'not part of any company policy.'
but the announcement has now won praise from The National Campaign For Courtesy.
The first hotel made from cake is to open in London this week, but only for one night.
Visitors to the three floor, eight room hotel in Soho will be invited to tuck into windows and walls clad with 2,000 macaroons, a rug made out of meringues, windowsills built entirely from fudge and even vanilla sponge cushions.
More than 14 artists spent 3,000 hours baking and decorating the hotel using 600 kilos of sugar.
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A woman from Serbia has baffled doctors and scientists with a condition that means she sees everything upside down.
Bojana Danilovic, 28, suffers from spatial orientation phenomenon which means although her eyes take in images the right way round, her brain flips them over to process them.
Bojana turns her books, newspapers and even her TV and computer screen upside down to use them. When she was a baby, she even first started crawling and walking backwards.
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A full sized replica of the house of commons has gone up for auction on eBay.
The 460sqm set comes with the famous green leather benches, wood paneled walls and marble effect floors and recently featured in The Iron Lady starring Meryl Streep.
It has been put up for sale by a film studio which is having a clear out. Bidding started at 99p and has reached £120,000 with a week to go.
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A man in Estonia has returned a library Book 69 years late saying the delay was due to second world war bombing.
The borrower who is in his 80s took the book out from Tallin Central library in March 1944 and finally got round to giving it back last week.
Fortunately the library decided to waive the fine at the current 15 pence a day charged in Kent, he would have to pay nearly £4000, although Kent does cap its charges at a maximum of £6.
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Two schoolgirls from Indonesia have won a science prize for inventing an environmentally friendly air freshener made from cow manure.
They collected dung from a local farm, left it to ferment for three days, then drained the water off and mixed that with coconut water before distilling the mixture.
The end result is a liquid air freshener with a natural aroma of herbs from digested cow food.
Former US President George W Bush is now doodling dogs!
He has painted pictures of about 50 canines including his late pet Barney
His art teacher Ms Flood is full of praise for him and his work and says he’s now moved onto painting more complicated landscapes
She believes "He's going to go down in the history books as a great artist."
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A piglet called Zorro is making a name for himself in New Zealand - thanks to his surfing skills.
The two-month-old's owner Matthew Bell has been taking him out on the waves since he was just three weeks old and says he's "phenomenal swimmer".
Mr Bell plans to continue searching for the perfect wave with his surfing mate until Zorro is too big for the board.
He says: "We'll keep surfing until he gets to a size where he's unmanageable and, yes, see what happens after that."
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150 competitors have been taking part in one of the world's most extreme and coldest marathons, in Siberia.
The Lake Baikal Ice marathon sees them running from shore to shore across the ice of the planet's largest and deepest fresh water lake in the middle of the Siberian winter.
It starts just after sunrise at 9am when temperatures are at minus 12c.
The winner completed the course in a time of 3 hours and 7 minutes.
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7th March
Tickets have gone on sale for a flight which will give passengers a close up view of a rare comet which is expected to pass Earth this year.
German company Eclipse Travel is selling 88 seats on the plane which will zig zag above the clouds - at 11 thousand metres - for two hours as the comet travels through the solar system 100 million miles from Earth.
A seat will set you back between £300 and £440.
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6th March
A zoo in China had to be evacuated on Monday morning when two lions went for a wander because a keeper cleaning their enclosure forgot to lock the gate.
Riot police were called in to help recapture the pair who were eventually returned to their enclosure four hours after their escape.
Neither they nor anyone else was hurt. Officials have apologised saying you can't blame the lions for taking advantage of human error.
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5th March
A man dressed as Batman has astonished police officers by bringing a suspected criminal into a police station for questioning before vanishing into the night.
The man - dressed as the 1960s version of the caped crusader with full mask, gloves and boots was caught on CCTV at Bradford police station calmly waiting to talk to the duty officer on reception and then leaving.
The superhero has caused a bit of a stir in the area with everyone from the local council leader to the Bishop of Bradford speculating about his identity.
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4th March
It turns out an alligator spotted in the Thames a week ago was probably a prop from a Bond film.
We told you on Monday that a retired university lecturer had seen the 4ft long creature bobbing around in the river near his home in Reading.
But now it's thought it was probably just a lifelike dummy which was used in 007 movie Live and Let Die. The prop is usually stored on an island in the river but could have been washed into the water during heavy rains.
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1st March
A Chinese woman has hit the weird news headlines for not cutting her hair in 11 years.
Cen Yingyuan - who is 5ft tall - has grown her hair to an astonishing 6ft 7in long.
It takes more than an hour to wash and a day and a half to completely dry. Cen says she's addicted to her own hair and saves every strand that falls out, collecting around 50g of hair a year.
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28th February
Organisers of a small town carnival in Essex very nearly pulled off a major showbiz coup after asking Beyonce to appear and perform at their procession in August.
The team at the Maldon Carnival Association got a response from her people saying she would hopefully attend as she would be in the UK on tour anyway.
Meetings were set up and emails were exchanged, but all the excitement was dashed when her reps asked for a £50,000 appearance fee, and decided the carnival probably wasn't likely to attract the crowds Beyonce is used to.
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27th February
In previous weird news stories we've told you about Japan's cat cafe's where people can go to chill out and de-stress as they stroke and play with cats.
Well now the UK's is getting its very own version. Entrepreneur Lauren Pears is looking for prospective sites in London and aiming to have the cat cafe up and running by May.
She says she's found 10 to 15 cats from a local animal rescue centre who'll staff the establishment, and has already had more than 300 applications for the human jobs.
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26th February
When the people behind the advertising slogan "Should have gone to Specsavers" came up with the line, this probably wasn't what they had in mind.
Over the weekend photos of a car which had crashed into a branch of the famous opticians in Sevenoaks were doing the rounds on Twitter. They showed the Ford Fiesta completely blocking the pavement to pedestrians and the shop front window cracked.
No one was hurt in the accident..
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25th February
A shopping centre in Australia has banned screaming toddlers from the building.
The Dee Why Grand mall, north of Sydney, took action after complaints about children becoming too loud near the centre's play area, and running amok in the food court.
Now a sign has gone up saying "parents need to be considerate of other customers... and screaming children will not be tolerated.."
Bosses say people deserve the "quiet enjoyment of their cup of tea".
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22nd February
People living along the River Thames are on crocodile-watch after a retired university lecturer claimed to have seen one in the water.
The 63 year old says he was cycling along the bank at Reading when he spotted what he thought was a bough of a tree with four stubby branches.
When he got closer he says he realised it was a 4ft long crocodile.
He came forward with the sighting after a shop worker claimed to have seen a fully grown swan suddenly pulled down into the water as if by a powerful reptile.
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21st February
A gallery in Austria showing an exhibition of paintings of male nudes, has opened its doors to hundreds of nudist art loves.
It staged the special viewing for the naturists who had travelled from all over Europe after a request for a private tour.
The museum says no ordinary members of the public were allowed in all the staff working that day had volunteered, and that the only people wearing clothes were the museum guides and security guards.
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20th February
A car powered by coffee has set a new speed record.
The specially modified Ford pick-up truck reached speeds of more than 65.5miles an hour during the attempt at an airfield in Great Manchester. That's a world best for this type of vehicle.
It uses coffee chaff pellets - which are the waste product from coffee production. They're heated until they break down into gas which is then cooled before being used to drive the engine.
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19th February
The perfect desk for people who like to daydream or even nap at their desk has been invented.
It's topped with a soft, waterproof, foam mattress allowing the user to just slump forward and comfortably rest their head.
It also has a small wooden block cut into it so you've got somewhere to put a coffee mug or notepad.
Its designer says it's a "practical and comfortable stress reliever" and he hopes it'll promote a laid back casual attitude towards work and life.
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18th February
A couple in Australia have had a Valentine's Day wedding at their local branch of Ikea.
Chad Martin and Lynne Klanbida won a competition to walk down the aisle at the store with every part of their big day featuring products from the chain including crockery and glasses, lighting, decorations and even meatballs.
The couple say they wanted to get married there because they both love the shop so much.
The hour long ceremony was attended by 80 of their family and friends and 80 other IKEA fans who got an invite via Facebook!
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15th February
Boffins at Oxford University have unveiled a car that drives itself.
It has small built-in cameras and lasers which help it remember roads and routes, and which also look out for obstacles such as other cars, cyclists and pedestrians.
The driver can put the car in auto pilot using an iPad, and take back control at a touch of the brake pedal.
It is thought the technology could be installed in mainstream cars within 15 years.
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14th February
A passionate couple in Thailand have broken the record for the longest continuous kiss smooching for more than 45 hours.
The kissing competition began on Tuesday, with 14 pairs attempting to be go the distance without sitting or sleeping. They were allowed eat, drink and use the lavatory as long they didn't break apart.
The couple who lasted the longest won a £1,000 pound diamond ring and £2,000 pounds in cash.
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13th February
Train passengers are used to being delayed because of snow or leaves on the line, but disruption because a signalman got stuck in a toilet has to be a first.
Just that happened at a station in Worcester recently when the lock on an outside loo jammed while the signalman was answering the call of nature.
The driver of a passing train couldn't make radio contact with him so was forced to make an unscheduled stop at the station.
The signalman's cries for help were eventually heard and he was freed by colleagues using a crowbar.
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12th February
A new insurance policy is pledging to protect against disasterous dates..
As part of the policy - aimed at women - you could get a pay out if your date shows a lack of chivalry, shoddy conversation, terrible personal hygiene or an iffy fashion sense.
It was launched after a survey of the worst places women had been taken on first dates.. included the doctor's surgery, a cattle market and a sewage pumping station.
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11th February
Six people have spent 48 hours each sitting on 8ft tall blocks of ice.. as part of a bizarre annual competition in Sweden.
The four men and two women had to endure temperatures of minus 28c to win a share of the £2,000 prize money.
They were only allowed to come down for 10 minutes toilet breaks every other hour and said the worst part wasn't the cold, it was the boredom.
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7th February
Herne Bay has been sold on auction site Ebay for the bargain price of £1.04.
It was listed by a seller who described the seaside town as "in desperate need of TLC" and "in danger of sinking into its imaginary flood plain".
The ad also said that with a little investment the town could become good again and that potential buyers were "bidding to buy a dream".
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6th February
A Scottish tourist has fallen victim to a thief with a difference while on holiday in New Zealand.
Peter Leach had the equivalent of £700 in cash stolen... by a parrot.
The native mountian parrot - called a Kea - even took the wallet the money was in after flying into the man's camper van through an open window while he was distracted looking at the view.
Peter says when he reported the theft to the authorities the police officer laughed at him.
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5th February
A three day sporting event in India has been sorting the men from the boys with a serious of gruelling challenges including carrying bricks with your teeth and cow chariot racing.
Other games featured at India's annual Rural Olympics include being run over by farm machinery, pulling ploughs and tractors with your teeth or hair and horseback acrobatics.
There's also a 100 metre race for the over 80s and special events for camels, dogs and other animals.
The event is a celebration of rural life and has taken place every year since 1933.
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4th February
A man has spent £1,800 building a kennel for his beloved dog which is an exact replica of his own house.
The new home built for Wellington, a two-year-old St Bernard, is one third the size of his owner's property, and has been decked out carpets, working lights, insulated walls, glossed skirting boards and a slate roof.
It even has a gravel drive, patio stepping stones and ceramic statues.
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1st February
Dogs caught short while out for a walk with their owners in one part of China can now spend a penny in a public bathroom specifically for pets.
Around 80 of the pet-only, open-air restrooms have already been built in the Luohu District with plans for hundreds more.
They measure around 10 square feet in size , are filled with sand, and are placed near parks and alongside pavements and walkways.
It's part of new laws to help clean up the streets.
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31st January
Ahead of Valentine's day, couples in Japan has been marking "Love Your Wife Day" where men express their love very, very publicly.
It involves them taking to the stage somewhere like a car park where they are surrounded by strangers, and then shouting about their adoration for their partners.
Their other halfs are said to be generally reduced to tear and hysterics..
Organisers reportedly started the event to help men easily express their feelings amid the modest Japanese culture.
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30th January
A new record has been set for the most people popping bubble wrap at the same time.
Three-hundred-and-thirty-six students at a high school in New Jersey took part in the record attempt which involved them popping as much as possible in the space of two minutes.
When the time was up they managed to get through 8,000 square feet of the stuff.
And here's a weird fact; bubble wrap was was invented in 1960 when it was actually intended to a kind of textured wallpaper.
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29th January
A CD featuring 30 minutes of silence recorded inside a church in East Sussex has gone on sale.
During the half hour recording all you can hear are the faint sounds of squeaking pews, soft footsteps and distant traffic.
All the money raised from sales of the CD is going towards repairs for the 800 year old St Peter's Church and it's not only been snapped up by local parisioners but also people in countries including Germany, Austria and Ghana.
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28th January
An igloo has put been up for sale on a property search website.
Described as a "detached house" in an upmarket areas of Bristol, estate agents say it features vaulted ceilings, open plan living space, and a minmalist and refreshingly cool atmosphere.
The house also has "further scope to extend (subject to necessary consents and weather conditions".
According to the listing the price has been frozen for January and availability is limited.
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25th January
An expensive French Restaurant in Japan has revealed a rather bizarre key ingredient in its expensive dishes.
Chefs at the Ne Quittez Pas eatery use DIRT to give them their menu a little something extra.
The black soil - which comes from a place called Kanuma - has been tested for safety and is featured in everything from soup, sauces and salad dressings, to risotto and ice cream.
The food is said to have only a slight hint earthiness.
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24th January
If your pet cats are a big part of your life then how about a new home for you with a host of specially designed features for them?
A Japanese company's created a flat which has elevated platforms and steps up to wooden beams for felines to climb on, tunnels linking each room and cat flaps in every door.
Everything's coated in a cat-proof substance to stop scratches and make it easy to clean.
There is even a litter box installed next to the toilet although there is a partition between them for a little privacy.
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23rd January
If you're fed up with the freezing conditions at the moment spare a thought for the 500 residents of the Russian village of Oymyakon which is the coldest permanently inhabited place in the world.
The average temperature for January is minus 50c, but the coldest temperature ever recorded there was minus 71.2c.
Villagers face daily challenges like glasses freezing to people's faces, batteries losing power, and pen ink icing over as they write. They also have to leave cars running all day in case they won't re-start.
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22nd January
A gang of robbers in Colombia who set out to burgle a local shop in the middle of the night had to ditch every thing they'd stolen after their get-away donkey alerted police.
They had managed to grab booze, oil and lots of food from the store but the donkey, which was also stolen, started hee-hawing rather loudly as they were loading the goods on to him.
They ran off and the donkey was taken into custody for 12 hours til his owner was notified and came to collect him.
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21st January
The world's largest television has been unveiled in Austria and it's so big it has to be kept outside!
The C Seed 201 - made by the people who make Porsche sports cars - has a 16ft wide screen, is made up more than 725,000 LEDs and displays 4.4 trillion colours,
It is hidden away when switched off but rises from the ground at the touch of button, with seven unfolding panels creating the 201 inch screen.
If you fancy one - it will set you back £414,000.
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18th January
A nursery in China has staged marriage ceremonies for more than 100 toddlers as part of a lesson on relationships.
The little brides and grooms - aged three to six - were dressed up in wedding dresses and smart suits, before having to swap rings and make vows in front of a registrar.
Staff at the nursery say the ceremony was pretty similar to the real thing, but shorter and not legally binding.
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17th January
A list of some of the more bizarre gifts given to the Queen in her Diamond Jubilee year has been unveiled.
During 2012, she became the owner of a baby llama and adopted an elephant.
Her majesty also received a knitted tea cosy of her and her corgis, a lego sculpture of Tower Bridge, a crown-shaped dog bed, a microsculpture of the Coronation Crown on a pin head as well as 19 teatowels, 9 jigsaws and 78 portraits of her herself.
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16th January
A pensioner who set out to drive just 38 miles to meet a friend at her local train station in Brussels, ended up on an 1,800 mile detour across Europe when her satnav went wrong.
67 year old Sabine Moreau followed the instructions for two days, only stopping to put more petrol in her car.
She crossed through the French, German, Austrian and Slovenian borders before arriving at her satnav's final, chosen destination in Croatia she says, only then did she realise something was wrong.
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15th January
A college is launching a new course which will see tutors teach students how to get through the auditions for TV talent shows.
The 17 week X Factor Preparation course in County Durham is believed to be the first of its kind and will end just in time for the next round of auditions for the show.
Tutors say singing, performance and confidence coaching are all on the syllabus and there are no formal entry requirements.. other than "enthusiasm and motivation".
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14th January
Tens of thousands of people around the world have got on a train without their trousers on as part of the 13th annual No Pants Day.
It first started on the subway in New York in 2002 and has since growing into a global phenomenon with more than 100 people taking part on the London Underground alone yesterday, despite freezing temperatures.
The idea is to get on a train, in your underpants, pretend you don't know the other people involved, and keep as straight a face as possible while doing it.
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11th January
A cat called Merlin is hoping he's done enough to secure a place in the record books as the world's loudest cat.
When he's in full flow the moggy from Devon can purr at a rather loud 100 decibels. That's as noisy as a classroom of chattering children, a London underground train, or a hand drill.
The average cat's purr registers at a mere 25dB.
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10th January
A gorilla at a zoo in Germany's gone to new heights in a bid to impress the ladies.
Keepers strung a rope from trees in Kidogo's enclosure for him to hang from, but instead he decided to use it as a highwire to walk across just like a circus act.
They reckon he might be copying human visitors at the zoo by walking upright, and wants to show who's boss by doing it better than they can.
Kidogo's party trick has seen him accepted as a mate by both of the females in his enclosure.
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9th January
A holiday firm is looking for a professional Waterslide Tester to try out its water parks around the world.
The job ad promises the successful candidate something a bit more exciting than your regular 9 to 5, where "no two days are the same" and where the idea of "going to work" means putting on your speedos or swimming cossie and hurtling down waterslides.
Whoever gets the job will have to travel around Europe and North Africa for six months and rate slides on their adrenaline factor, biggest splash and rideability.
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8th January
A cat has been detained at a Brazilian jail after trying to get in through the gates with a mobile phone and various tools taped to its body.
The feline attracted the attention of prison guards because of its frequent visits to and from the jail. It was found to be carrying drill bits, tiny saws, files, a memory card, batteries and a phone and charger.
Officials told the local paper said they don't know which prisoner the haul was destined for, as "the cat doesn't speak".
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7th January
The latest wacky invention to come out of Japan is a tail for humans which wags when the wearer's in a good mood.
Called the "Tailly" it attaches to a belt with sensors which measures the wearer's pulse rate. When the wearers heart beat quickens the tail wags faster.
Inventor Shota Ishiwatari says he's convinced it'll be a hit and has set up a website to try to raise enough funding for it to go into production.
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Claire's Weird News Archive 2012
A look back at the weirdest news stories from Heart Breakfast
Audio
Heart Breakfast 16th-20th April
Find out what James and Charlie got up to on Heart Breakfast...
Pet Shop Boys Always On My Mind
21:00
Snap The Power
20:56
Sonique It Feels So Good
20:52
The Late Show with Simon Beale
The Late Show with Simon Beale
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