Man tosses apartment items from window
A Hong Kong man was arrested and checked for mental illness after he emptied his 35th-floor apartment by dropping its contents from the window, police and media said Sunday.
No one was reported injured by the falling objects. The man was upset because he had recently broken up with his girlfriend.
Newspapers ran pictures showing the ground near the apartment building littered with pots, books, a broken electric fan and other items.
"He tossed whatever was in his apartment," said police spokesman Edwin Hung.
By the time the man was done, all that was left inside was his air conditioner, refrigerator, washer and large pieces of furniture.
Officers broke into the apartment on Saturday and arrested the 21-year-old man, surnamed Wu, Hung said.
Wu was being evaluated for mental illness and has not been charged, Hung said.

Germans want Berlin Wall back
Nearly a quarter of western Germans and 12 percent of easterners want the Berlin Wall back -- more than 15 years after the fall of the barrier that split Germany during the Cold War, according to a survey.
The results of the poll, published on Saturday, reflected die-hard animosities over high reunification costs lowering western standards of living and economic turmoil in the east.
The survey of 2,000 Germans by Berlin's Free University and pollsters Forsa found 24 percent of those living in western Germany want the Wall back -- double the eastern level.
In Berlin itself, 11 percent of westerners and 8 percent of easterners said "yes" when asked: "Would it be better if the Wall between East and West were still standing?".
The Berlin Wall was breached on November 9, 1989, paving the way for the unification of Communist East Germany with the West on October 3, 1990. But billions of euros (dollars) spent rebuilding the east have failed to prop up the depressed region, which is plagued by high unemployment and a shrinking population.

Life and death of Shanghai sperm
The bright lights and fast living of China's richest city have taken a heavy toll on the local sperm count.
Shanghai's sperm bank had managed to collect just 6,000 samples in two years and many of those were of "poor quality", it was reported on Monday.
"More than 2,000 people came here for physical checks and only 400 were found to be qualified" to donate sperm, the sperm bank director, Li Zheng said.
Unhealthy lifestyles, emotional stress and environmental pollution were to blame for deteriorating quality, it added.
Almost a 10th of married couples in Shanghai were believed to be infertile, and about 10 percent of those turned to a sperm bank for help, it added.
China imposes strict family planning rules that typically allow couples to have just one child. But those have eased over the years as it faces an estimated $300 billion (151 billion pounds) shortfall in its pension system while its populace rapidly ages.

Cat trapped in house fed via letter box
The owners of a cat trapped for a week in the home of a holidaying neighbour in Britain have been pushing ice-cubes and cat food through the letter box to keep their pet -- named Lucky -- alive.
On Monday said the black-and-white cat was spotted fast asleep in the neighbour's house after she went missing from her home near Bristol.
"I just hope our neighbour has gone away for a week and not for months," owner Tracey Venables, 31 said.
Venables said it was likely Lucky had slipped into the neighbour's house unnoticed before the man headed off on holiday ahead of the Easter weekend.
Police have told Venables they are powerless to release her errant cat.
"It's absolutely infuriating because she is so close but we cannot get to her," said the mother-of-two, who added she would break in should Lucky show any signs of ill health.
"I don't care if I get arrested."

Pole dancing the latest fad
Silver disco balls spin red lip-shaped lights around the room and Britney Spears' "Oops I did it again" blares as Debbie gives herself a cheeky slap on the left buttock.
In school uniform, suspenders and high heels, she struts confidently around the pole, hooks her leg around it and swings to the ground before rippling back up. Flicking her long hair aside, she pauses to glance over her shoulder at the audience.
But contrary to appearances, Debbie is no pole pro. She's a 42-year-old married banker in London who has just completed a six-week beginners' course in pole dancing at My Pole Dance School in London.
She is one of growing numbers of urban British women -- from bankers and accountants to charity workers and housewives -- who are using poles to get fit and get sexy.
Gyms and pole dancing schools are reporting a huge surge in enrolment, supposedly inspired by model Kate Moss's sultry pole performance in the recent pop video by White Stripes and the film "Closer", in which Natalie Portman plays a stripper.
"It brings out the raunchy side in everyone," says fellow pole apprentice Sam, 29, who works in children's TV by day and frequents fetish clubs by night, a pastime hinted at by her six inch perspex and PVC heels.


Art smuggled into museums
Many a visitor to New York's Museum of Modern Art has probably thought, "I could do that."
A British graffiti artist who goes by the name "Banksy" went one step further, by smuggling in his own picture of a soup can and hanging it on a wall, where it stayed for more than three days earlier this month before anybody noticed.
The prank was part of a coordinated plan to infiltrate four of New York's top museums on a single day.
The largest piece, which he smuggled into the Brooklyn Museum, was a 2 foot by 1.5 foot (61cm by 46 cm) oil painting of a colonial-era admiral, to which the artist had added a can of spray paint in his hand and anti-war graffiti in the background.
The other two targets were the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the American Museum of Natural History, where he hung a glass-encased beetle with fighter jet wings and missiles attached to its body -- another comment on war, Banksy told Reuters on Thursday.
"It was just an outsider's view of the modern American bug, bristling with listening devices and military hardware," he said.

Easter Bunny beaten up
The Easter Bunny is hopping mad. Bryan Johnson, who portrays the furry character at the Bay City Mall in Michigan, says he was pummeled in an unprovoked attack on the job. Police say the attacker was a 12-year-old boy who sat on Johnson's lap the day before the March 18 incident.
Johnson, 18, suffered a bloody nose. He kept his cool during the attack, deeming it inappropriate for the Easter Bunny to fight back. But he's not willing to forgive and forget.
"They (the sheriff's deputies) told me it was up to me, and I feel that the boy should be prosecuted," Johnson said.
Johnson told Bay County Sheriff's deputies that the boy hit him in the face at least six times before running away.
Bay County Sheriff John E. Miller said the youth has been in trouble in the past. The case will be forwarded to the Bay County prosecutor's office next week for action, he said.



 

Tailpiece

That feels pretty good
Two women are playing golf on a sunny afternoon when one of them slices her shot into a foursome of men. To her horror, one of the men collapses in agony with both hands in his crotch. She runs to him apologizing profusely, explaining that she is a physical therapist and can help ease his pain.
"No thanks... just give me a few minutes... I'll be fine..." he replies quietly with his hands still between his legs. Taking it upon herself to help the poor man, she gently undoes the front of his pant and starts massaging his genitals.
"Doesn't that feel better?" she asks.
"Well... yes... That feels pretty good," he admits. "But my thumb still hurts like hell."