Meanwhile...

Some neglected news stories of the past week

Some neglected news stories of the past week:

American way of life

Robert Brecheen was rushed to hospital in an Oklahoma prison after taking an overdose of sedatives. After his stomach was pumped, he was taken back to prison and executed by lethal injection. The director of the state Corrections Department said: "Certainly there's irony". The husband of the woman Breechen murdered said: "It wasn't his job to take his life."

Big bun

Nine tons of flour and 10,000 eggs went into a 25-ton cake, 30ft in diameter, cooked in Chile and claimed as a new world record.

Herr style

A German judge has ruled that a male transvestite may not adopt a woman's name without first undergoing a sex-change operation.

Sex equality Chinese style

East China Airlines has recruited its first male flight attendants after previously accepting only female stewardesses.

Queen abdicates

A Cairo drug dealer surprised neighbours by returning home with a moustache after three years in prison. They had known him as "queen of the drug dealers" since he was a girl. The authorities had also sent him first to a women's prison before realising their mistake.

Keeping abreast of the market

Rick's Cabaret of Houston, Texas has become the first topless bar to be given approval to be traded on the US stock market.

Sad Cyprus

Monks at the Macheras Monastery in Cyprus, shocked by the sight of bare legs and shoulders, have enlisted the help of the security firm Group 4 to keep scantily dressed tourists away.

The three Ronnies

At a wedding in Florida, Judge Ronald Legendre presided over a ceremony at which the groom, another Ronald Legendre, was handed the ring by the best man, a third Ronald Legendre. They were not related.

Hell hath no fury...

A Gloucestershire man accused of threatening a taxi-driver with a knife told the court that he was trying to get arrested because he could not face going home drunk to his wife. He wanted a night in jail to sober up.

"Is there nothing to gainsay this rather curious explanation?" the judge asked. "I think it is accepted by the court," said the prosecuting counsel. The man was ordered to do 80 hours community service and put on probation for 12 months.

Soft cell

The barred windows of the police station at Cricklade, Wiltshire, have been decorated with cuddly toys donated by locals to offset the austere appearance of new security measures.