Biker's YouTube gaffe

A biker is facing a driving ban after he filmed himself speeding at 100mph and posted the clip on YouTube.

The 37-year-old, from Burnham-on-Sea, Somerset, was easily identified because he filmed himself leaving his front door.

A camera mounted behind the windshield of his 180mph Yamaha R1 shows him doing wheelies and roaring past a school and housing estate.

After the video was posted, one of the drivers he overtook left a message on the website, reports the Mirror.

The jeep driver said: "Unfortunately I am one of the cars he passed that day doing a phenomenal speed and pulling a wheelie.

"I didn't see him until he was by my side, he was very close as well and the slightest drift to the right on my part and it could have been a bit rough."

The footage was spotted by police who - in the first case of its kind - are using the video as evidence and have sent a file to the CPS. Detectives expect dangerous driving charges to be brought within the next few weeks.

Avon and Somerset police said: "He is risking a long ban. What is humorous to some could be fatal to others."

Nuns on the run

Fifty-five nuns - all called Maria - are on the run after racking up debts of £400,000.

The women had secretly run a knitwear company on the side for ten years. Their convent supplied 25 shops and they blew money traveling to fashion shows across Europe, reports the Sun.

The nuns of St Kyrikos and Ioulite in Northern Greece hit money problems after spending huge sums on new machinery.

Their expensive knitting machines were put on a lorry and the sisters disappeared a few days later. Greek Orthodox Church officials believe they may be hiding at a monastery in Volos, Central Greece.

The nuns' lawyer Dionysios Pelekis said they had asked church superiors to settle the debt by selling 16 convent-owned properties. But the request was refused.

Man allegedly zaps wife's grandmother

NORTH BONNEVILLE, Wash. - A man who said he used a stun gun on his wife's 79-year-old grandmother was arrested for investigation of domestic assault.

Aaron de Bruyn, 26, was cited with fourth-degree domestic violence assault Wednesday and released from the Skamania County jail Thursday, Police Chief Calvin Owens said. The grandmother wasn't injured.

De Bruyn said he was arguing with Rosemary Garlock, who accused him of abusing his 7-month-old son when he swatted the boy's diapered bottom to stop him from grabbing electrical wires.

When she refused to leave, he said he shocked her on her right shoulder as she sat on the living room couch.

"She yelped, because getting Tased hurts," de Bruyn told The Columbian newspaper.

De Bruyn said he had the 50,000-volt Taser X26 energy weapon to protect against burglars. He said he called authorities, saying he had a relative in his house who would not leave.

De Bruyn's stun gun was confiscated.

"If I had to do it over again, I wouldn't," he said.

Delayed convict steals car to get back to jail

DUBLIN, Jan 25 (Reuters Life!) - An Irish convict who stole a car to get back to prison after missing a weekend release deadline has been given a six month suspended jail sentence.

Trevor Doyle, 25, grabbed the vehicle after falling asleep on a bus and overshooting his stop near Shelton Abbey open prison in Arklow on Ireland's southeast coast, Wexford district court officials said Thursday.

The court, which would not reveal the man's prior conviction, also fined him 300 euros ($390) for failing to submit to a breathalyzer test.

Man with mannequin fetish sent to prison

PONTIAC, Mich. - A man who acknowledged a sexual fetish for female-shaped mannequins was sentenced Thursday to more than a year in prison after repeatedly breaking into storefront windows.

Ronald Dotson, 39, of Detroit, was sentenced to 18 months to 30 years on charges of breaking and entering and being a habitual criminal.

He was arrested in October after police in the Detroit suburb of Royal Oak spotted him near a smashed storefront window containing a mannequin wearing a French maid outfit.

The arrest came less than a week after he had been paroled for his sixth breaking-and-entering conviction in 13 years. Some of the previous cases also involved mannequins. Police once found him in an alley behind a women's clothing store with three mannequins dressed in lingerie.

"I've never been able to take care of myself," Dotson told Judge Denise Langford Morris at sentencing.

Morris acknowledged that Dotson had never assaulted a person but said his behavior "strikes fear in the community."

Blind man caught speeding keeps disability pension

A blind Spanish man caught in a radar trap driving 100mph has been allowed to keep his disability pension after proving he could not see.

Benefit officials tried to strip the disability allowance from Domingo Merino after he was snapped doing 154kmh (98mph) near Barcelona.He also faced having to repay a £360,000 insurance payment for the loss of his sight in a car accident in 1996. Insurers Mapfre said the charge proved he could see.

But a Barcelona court threw out the claims after Merino explained he had wanted to drive one more time. He said he had persuaded his wife to sit beside him telling where to steer as he travelled along a straight stretch of road.

Asbo for singing Gary Glitter hits

A woman has been given an Asbo - for singing Gary Glitter songs in the bath.

Mother of two, Caroline Bishop, 39, sang songs like Leader Of The Gang to annoy neighbours.

Alistair and Kerry Law complained they endured months of harassment in Ingham, Lincolnshire.According to the Sun, Mrs Law said: "You could hear it from my kitchen with the window shut - day in, day out."

Council spokeswoman, Belinda Moore, said: "In isolation these matters would be trivial, but they occurred many times."The Asbo bans Bishop from loud singing or shouting, and abusing or harassing neighbours.

She said: "We are being victimised."

Rare tigers found in mini-van

Customs officers doing a routine border check opened the back doors of a mini van to discover two fully-grown Siberian tigers.

The male and female tigers were being smuggled into Montenegro from neighbouring Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The driver and two passengers were arrested for the illegal trafficking of animals, which are one of the world's most endangered species.

The tigers are being temporarily looked after in a local zoo.

Siberian tigers tend to live in snow-covered areas and it is unclear how the animals ended up in the Mediterranean country, or what their final destination was.

Statue of Dennis the Menace stolen

MONTEREY, Calif. - The mischievous Dennis the Menace has gone missing - except this time, he's not hiding because he broke the rules.

A statue of the perennial pint-sized troublemaker that stood for almost two decades in a city park was unbolted and stolen sometime between Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning, police said.

Police said the statue, which is 3 feet tall and weighs 125 pounds, is worth as much as $30,000. The city is offering a $5,000 reward for its safe return.

The statue was crafted by Carmel artist Wah Ming Chang. It was commissioned by Hank Ketcham, the cartoon character's creator who died in 2001.

Police aren't sure how the thief or thieves got the bulky statue out of the park but are asking the public for any tips about Dennis' whereabouts.

Gun blast ignites fireworks shop

LAC DU FLAMBEAU, Wis. - A man attempting to rob a fireworks shop fired his shotgun, igniting fireworks and starting a blaze that destroyed the business, authorities said.

No injuries were reported at North American Fireworks, the Vilas County Sheriff's Department said in a statement Saturday. A 20-year-old man was being held in jail after being tracked to a home about 10 miles away.

The owner told deputies a male entered the business Friday wearing a ski mask and armed with a shotgun. He fired indoors, and a shot apparently ignited fireworks, authorities said.

The owner was able to wrestle the shotgun away and remove the man's ski mask, but the suspect fled on an all-terrain vehicle that had been idling outside, deputies said.

The fireworks began to burn out of control, destroying the rest of the building.

Boy takes stolen bus on route

FERN PARK, Fla. - A 15-year-old boy stole a bus, drove it along a public transit route, picked up passengers and collected fares, authorities said Sunday.

Ritchie Calvin Davis was already on probation for taking a tour bus and driving passengers around, authorities said.

In Saturday's incident, he took the bus from the Central Florida Fairgrounds in Orlando, where it was parked awaiting sale at an auction, a Seminole County sheriff's report said. The bus belongs to the Central Florida Transportation Agency, which runs LYNX public transit services in the Orlando area.

"I drove that bus better than most of the LYNX drivers could," the teen, who is too young to drive legally, told a deputy after he was stopped and arrested. "There isn't a scratch on it. I know how to start it, drive it, lower it, raise it."

Passengers and deputies noted Davis drove the bus at normal speeds and made all the appropriate stops on the route. One passenger, suspicious of the youthful looks of the driver, called 911.

The bus had two passengers when deputies stopped it in Fern Park, about 12 miles north of the fairgrounds. Authorities believe Davis picked up a total of three passengers and collected only a few dollars.

He was charged with grand theft auto and driving without a license. A court hearing was scheduled Tuesday to determine whether he will be charged as an adult.

A message left at the home of a man identified as a Davis relative was not immediately returned Sunday.

Police find naked man stuck in window

FORREST CITY, Ark. - Authorities say a would-be burglar's plot was foiled when he got stuck - naked - in the window of a house. The man was caught before he could take anything from an apartment he was allegedly trying to rob, Forrest City police said.

Dennis Reed Jr., 19, was arrested Saturday when police found him stuck between an air conditioning unit and a window frame of the apartment, police said. Reed was nude when police found him.

Reed told police that he was forced at gunpoint to break into the apartment by a subject he only knew by his first name.

Officers and emergency personnel initially tried to free Reed, but were unsuccessful. Reed was finally freed after the fire department's rescue squad rescue personnel entered the apartment and removed the air conditioner.

Reed was charged with residential burglary and taken to the St. Francis County jail, police said.

Robbers break into empty bank

A gang of Romanian robbers broke into a bank's headquarters in a daring overnight raid - only to find it empty.

The three criminals expected to hit the jackpot with their raid on the bank in Constanta city centre.

But they did not know that the bank was relocating to new premises and the building was empty.

Police said the gang broke into the building, which had been closed for renovation work, by forcing the main doors.

A police spokesman said: "The robbers thought they would make the hit of their lives but instead broke into an empty building.

"They couldn't find anything to steal, not even some heating pipes they tried to remove from the walls."

The robbers were seen by neighbours when they left the building empty-handed but police couldn't catch them.

Officers said they have taken evidence from the scene and had already drawn up a list of suspects.

Officials probe finger-in-sandwich claim

CHOWCHILLA, Calif. - Health officials are investigating a woman's claim that she found part of a human finger in a Subway sandwich - an allegation reminiscent of the chili bowl finger hoax at a Wendy's restaurant last year.

Two health inspectors visited the Subway restaurant Thursday in Chowchilla after the woman reported finding what appeared to be a half-inch piece of a finger a day earlier, said Jill Yaeger, director of the Madera County Environmental Health Department.

The inspectors did not find any evidence that a restaurant worker had lost part of a finger, and they found no violations of food handling procedures there, Yaeger said. The purported human digit was sent to a laboratory for testing, and the incident was reported to police.

The Subway manager, Anita Munoz, said she was in the restaurant when the woman returned with what she claimed looked like a finger.

"It looked like a thick piece of fat," she told The Fresno Bee. "It doesn't look anything human to me."

Munoz said the incident would be investigated by Subway's national headquarters.

Subway spokesman Kevin Kane said the company was aware of the woman's claim but would not comment until Madera County officials completed their investigation.

"The Subway restaurant chain takes every customer comment seriously," Kane said Friday. "We don't know what the foreign object is yet."

Chowchilla is about 90 miles east of San Jose, where a Las Vegas woman claimed in March 2005 that she bit into a fingertip in a bowl of chili at a Wendy's restaurant. Anna Ayala's stomach-turning claim made headlines around the world.

The claim was found to be a hoax and Ayala was sentenced to nine years in prison. Her husband was sentenced to more than 12 years for getting the finger from a co-worker who lost it in a workplace accident.

Wendy's, based in Dublin, Ohio, said it lost $2.5 million in sales because of bad publicity and had to lay off dozens of employees at its Northern California franchises.

Subway, which has more than 26,000 restaurants in 85 countries, is owned by Doctor's Associates Inc., based in Milford, Conn.

Toyshop owner robs bank with water pistol

A struggling Austrian toyshop owner was arrested after he tried to rob a bank with one of his toy guns.

The 44-year-old, from Vienna, stormed into a local bank with a stocking over his head and a gun in his hand, and demanded clerks empty their tills.

But a security guard noticed the 'weapon' was a plastic water pistol and asked him to hand over the toy to avoid "an even bigger embarrassment".

The would-be robber told police: "I was driven to this desperate deed after my toy shop went bankrupt."

Drunk Norwegian breaks into prison

OSLO, Norway - In a different kind of jail break, a very drunk young man surprised prison guards by breaking into their northern Norway jail. "You might say we were a bit perturbed to find this person on our turf," prison warden Geir Broen said on the state radio network NRK on Monday.

Broen said the district prison in the Arctic town of Bodoe is rebuilding its outer fence, and that the man broke through a section of temporary fencing.

The weak fence is of no help to real prisoners seeking a way out, since they are confined within the walls of the jail compound.

The Norwegian, identified only as being in his 20s, was apparently was trying to find his way home after a Friday night party.

"I don't think this guy knew where he was, and he was pretty well under the influence," Broen said on the radio.

When police came to pick up the man to take him home, he told them he thought he was in Moerkved, a neighborhood about 6 miles east of the prison.

"I guess you could say this was notable day in the history of the Bodoe Jail," Broen said. "But I hope we don't have many similar incidents in the future."

Death-row prisoner gets pregnant in solitary

HANOI (Reuters) - A death-row inmate held in solitary confinement in Vietnam for almost a year is pregnant and is seeking a pardon to give birth, a newspaper reported on Thursday.

The Lao Dong (Labour) newspaper quoted a police doctor as saying tests in September confirmed that convicted heroin trafficker Nguyen Thi Oanh, 39, was then 11 weeks pregnant.

The report said it was the first time that a death-row prisoner had become pregnant in Vietnam and that police were investigating how it had happened.

Oanh's husband was serving a jail sentence at another prison in another province, the newspaper said.

Oanh was due to face a firing squad this year after losing her appeal against the death sentence she received last year for possession of a billion dong ($63,000) worth of heroin.

Trafficking more than 600 grams of heroin in Vietnam is punishable by death or life imprisonment

Troops battle 10-foot marijuana plants

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canadian troops fighting Taliban militants in Afghanistan have stumbled across an unexpected and potent enemy -- almost impenetrable forests of 10-feet-high marijuana plants.

General Rick Hillier, chief of the Canadian defense staff, said on Thursday that Taliban fighters were using the forests as cover. In response, the crew of at least one armored car had camouflaged their vehicle with marijuana.

"The challenge is that marijuana plants absorb energy, heat very readily. It's very difficult to penetrate with thermal devices ... and as a result you really have to be careful that the Taliban don't dodge in and out of those marijuana forests," he said in a speech in Ottawa.

"We tried burning them with white phosphorous -- it didn't work. We tried burning them with diesel -- it didn't work. The plants are so full of water right now ... that we simply couldn't burn them," he said.

Man who urinated in soda has shy bladder

DELAND, Fla. - A man who was jailed for urinating in a drink that was consumed by and sickened a convenience store customer could be in trouble again, this time because he can't produce that bodily fluid.

Anthony Mesa, 22, was sentenced to six months in jail and two years of a form of house arrest for urinating in the bottle of Mountain Dew and must also periodically take a urine drug test. Mesa said Wednesday, however, that he has a condition called shy bladder which affects his ability to urinate in public and therefore to take the drug test. He had failed to take a court-ordered test Sept. 19, the Orlando Sentinel reported.

"Anthony's little prank has taught him a great deal, and the irony of it all is that peeing was what got him trouble in the first place, and now not being able to is getting him trouble again," Mesa's mother, Denise Hislop, wrote to court officials.

Mesa has offered to take the test another way, including with a blood sample.

Mesa, a former convenience store clerk at a Pix store in Deltona, pleaded no contest to tampering with a consumer product. A construction worker who purchased the drink he urinated in began vomiting after drinking the product.

Police find burgers sprinkled with pot

LOS LUNAS, N.M. - Three workers at a Burger King restaurant were arrested after two Isleta tribal police officers discovered that the hamburgers they ordered were sprinkled with marijuana.

The Isleta Police Department officers ate about half of their burgers Sunday before discovering marijuana on the meat. The officers used a field test kit to confirm the substance was pot, then went to a hospital for a medical evaluation.

The three Burger King employees - Justin Armijo, 19; Robert Nuckols, 21; and manager Joseph Ledesma, 33 - were arrested and charged with possession of marijuana and aggravated battery on an officer, a felony.