Oslo: A Norwegian police officer was forced to use her bicycle as a weapon to defend herself when attacked by a bird.
Jorun Lyngstad was off duty and riding her bike in the woods when the feathered attacker swooped. A wood grouse, Europe's biggest game bird, attacked Officer Lyngstad, sending her flying through the air.
She had to use her bike as a weapon to fight off the bird. "It wouldn't give up," she said. "It was a harder fight than I usually see when I'm on duty."
Beijing: A Chinese historian says he has evidence that ruthless conqueror and master of the Mongol horde Genghis Khan was as masterful with the pen as he was with the sword.
Historians have long assumed the ancient Mongolian ruler was illiterate but a professor at China's Inner Mongolia University says he has an "autographic edict" written by Genghis Khan in 1219 inside a book sent to a Chinese Taoist priest, the official news agency said.
Zurich: Surfing could come to land-locked Switzerland after a sports group announced plans to build a wave machine on a river in Zurich. A plastic dam on the bed of the Limmat river would pump out tailor-made waves, the group said, adding it hoped to complete the project in 2006 provided it found sponsorship.
London: In an effort to highlight the problem of testicular and prostate cancer, Jeremy Edwards, Kirsty Gallagher and Ralf Little turned up at the Westbury Hotel in London yesterday wearing false moustaches to launch the Everyman Action Against Male Cancer Campaign TacheBack Challenge. Throughout September, men are being urged to grow a moustache and get sponsored to raise money for research into the cancers.