MAGPIE:A SWEDISH woman with a fetish for inanimate objects has revealed that she's been married to the Berlin Wall for 29 years. Eija-Riitta Berliner-Mauer (54), whose surname means "Berlin Wall" in German, says she wed the concrete structure in 1979.
"I find long, slim things with horizontal lines very sexy. The Great Wall of China's attractive, but he's too thick - my husband is sexier," she said.
Mrs Berliner-Mauer, who has been diagnosed with a condition called Objectum-Sexuality, claimed she fell in love with the wall when she first saw it on TV as a child. She began collecting "his" pictures and saving up for visits. On her sixth trip in 1979 they tied the knot before a handful of guests.
While she remains a virgin with humans, she insists she had a full, loving relationship with the wall. While the rest of mankind rejoiced when the Berlin Wall was largely torn down in 1989, Mrs Berliner-Mauer, who lives in Liden, northern Sweden, was horrified.
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Two Australian burglars broke into a house - only to find it full of police officers staging a drugs raid.
"It is unusual," said Det Sgt Paul Cassidy, who declined to comment on whether the burglars had been after money or drugs.
The startled burglars, who were all their 20s, fled but were caught a couple of days later.
The property was allegedly being used for growing cannabis.
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When two New Zealand pilots ran out of fuel in a microlight airplane, they prayed for their survival and were able to make an emergency landing in a field.
Grant Stubbs and Owen Wilson were flying up the sloping valley of Pelorus Sound when the engine spluttered and died.
"My friend and I are both Christians so our immediate reaction in a life-threatening situation was to ask for God's help," said Mr Stubbs.
It worked, apparently. The microlight came to rest safely, next to a sign reading: "Jesus is Lord".
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A Chinese man has stunned onlookers by demonstrating his ability to squirt milk out of his eyes. Zhang Yinming drank milk through his nose and then squirted it up to two metres with his eyes.
Mr Zhang, from Shandong province, showed off his unusual skills in Nanjing city, the capital of Jiangsu province. Amazed onlookers say they would never have believed it without seeing it with their own eyes.
Zhang also used his ears to blow up two balloons at the same time.
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A would-be mayor is in the dog house after turning packs of stray pooches into living billboards. Puzzled voters in Bacau, eastern Romania, found their streets flooded with dogs - all wearing posters saying "Vote for Radu Nicolau" on their backs.
"It's the best way to get my message across," said Mr Nicolau. "I love dogs and they can spread the word about my campaign quicker than I and my campaign team could."
Animal rights groups called the stunt "sick exploitation".