Dog eats cop car's tyres

Some dogs chase cars. One in a North Carolina town decided to try to eat one.

The Cumberland County Sheriff's Office says a pit bull managed to deflate all four tyres of a deputy's cruiser near Hope Mills on Sunday.

Police spokeswoman Debbie Tanna says the deputy parked his car in a woman's driveway while responding to her complaint about another dog.

When Deputy Lynn Lavallis went to speak with Gloria Bass, the dog started eating the tyres. By the time the deputy returned, all four had been wrecked.

Tanna says the dog's owner, Bass's next-door neighbor, will be billed $500 for a new set of wheels.

Judge tapes defendant's mouth shut

A judge unhappy with repeated interruptions from a robbery suspect took rather direct action to achieve silence in court - he ordered a deputy to put duct tape over the defendant's mouth.

Judge Stephen Belden, of Canton Municipal Court in Ohio, said that the taping last Thursday was the best way to restore order at a hearing for 51-year-old Harry

Brown of Canton, The Repository newspaper reported.Brown complained that his court-appointed attorney wasn't prepared and angered the judge with interruptions. After a warning, the judge told the bailiff to tape Brown's mouth shut.

When the tape was removed, Brown said that the judge wasn't being respectful. The judge ended the hearing and sent the case to a grand jury.

World's smallest dog dies from being too small

A contender for the smallest dog in the world title has tragically taken its last pant aged just six months old.

The Maltese pup, named Scooter, was so small he could even fit in the palm of your hand, but sadly it was just that which caused his untimely death.

The sprightly pooch jumped out of his minders hands and broke his leg after landing awkwardly on the floor.

The 8cm tall, 20cm long, dog received medication for the break, but sadly he developed stomach ulcers and died the following night.

The tiny pup was waiting for his first birthday before vying for the Guinness Book of Records title, but it seems it wasn't meant to be for the cute creature.

All in all, it's a sad week for dog lovers after the New York-based Laborador, Chanel - who held the Guinness World Record for being the oldest dog - also died at the grand old age of 21.

These pears have gone baby-shaped

Things aren't going pear-shaped for the humble fruit - they are going baby-shaped.

Britain could soon see the arrival of pears from China which have been shaped to look like youngsters.

Farmer Gao Xianzhang spent six years perfecting his idea, which involves growing each fruit for a certain amount of time inside individual moulds.

Despite costing £5 each, people in his home village of Hexia, in northern China's Hebei province, have been snapping up the unusual fruit.

He said: 'People seem to think they are cute or lucky and will buy them as soon as they're off the tree.' He has cropped 10,000 of the pears this season and is planning to export them to Britain and the rest of Europe.

Luckily for Mr Gao, he should have no problem getting his irregular shaped fruit past EU officials.

In July, wonky shaped fruit and vegetables such as curvy cucumbers and knobbly carrots returned to supermarket shelves thanks to the abolition of EU rules on the size and shape of 36 types of fruit and veg.

For 20 years, EU-wide marketing standards encouraged only the finest-looking produce to reach shops.

Temporary tattoos to find lost children

A concerned mother has come up with a novel solution to re-unite lost children with parents - temporary tattoos.

Virginia Lu came up with the idea of 'tottoos', which can be tailor-made to include phone numbers or details of medical conditions, after finding a missing girl at a packed football stadium.

They can be stuck on children before families head to busy venues and wash off with soap and water.

'It's just enough information to contact the parent,' said Mrs Lu, of Washington DC.