THE MAGPIE/DIARY:A ROMANIAN farmer was using an unexploded missile as an anvil until firefighters kindly pointed out that it was likely to explode at any time.
The man discovered the 122mm calibre missile in his garden a few months ago and used it to sharpen farm implements until shocked firefighters learned what he was doing. Explosive experts said it was still active and could have killed the farmer's family and his neighbours. Even hardened professionals were dumbfounded by the farmer's stupidity.
A spokesman for the firefighters said: "We've had many problems because of these unexploded bombs which have been in the ground since the second World War, but this is really crazy. How can you hit a bomb with the hammer? It could have exploded any time."
A 40-year-old Englishman has lost over 10 stone in nine months - by eating six cans of baked beans a day. Neil King, from Halstead, Essex, weighed 30 stone before deciding to go on a diet in a bid to improve his health. Since June last year he has eaten over half a tonne of baked beans - roughly 1,500 cans. "Some people think I'm mad but I love the taste and the weight has been dropping off."
• A Bulgarian farmer has swapped his wife for a goat - because she couldn't give him children.
Stoil Panayotov exchanged his wife for Elena the eight-year-old goat at a livestock market in front of a stunned crowd in the market town of Plovdiv, central Bulgaria.
"The day before a friend told me that he had had no luck with women and that he really liked my wife," Panaytov said.
"The deal was reached when my wife gave her approval. The goat has given birth to three kids and my wife to none. So this deal was more profitable to the goat owner, I got a second-hand goat and he got a brand new wife."
• An American man has been acquitted of smuggling iguanas from Fiji in his hollowed-out prosthetic leg. But Jereme James, from Long Beach, California, was found guilty of concealing and possessing Fiji Island iguanas and could still face up to 20 years in prison.
The jury in the three-day trial rejected charges that James stole the lizards on a visit to the South Pacific Island in September 2002.
James came under suspicion after officials received a tip-off that he was smuggling the protected reptiles in a special compartment inside his prosthetic leg and had several specimens at his home. During an undercover police investigation, James confessed he had sold three of the iguanas for $32,000 (€20,000). Police seized four of the iguanas when they searched his house after obtaining a search warrant last July. The neon green-striped reptiles, which are protected by an international treaty regulating trade in endangered species, will be entered into a breeding programme in the United States.
James is due back in court in July for sentencing.
• In Wales a veteran motorist ended 76 years of trouble-free driving by smashing his Ford Fiesta into two Porsches - Dukes of Hazard style.
Jack Higgs (93) was parking next to a Porsche showroom in Penarth, near Cardiff, when his foot slipped causing his car to shoot backwards. First he hit a Red Carrera II which acted as a ramp flipping his car on to the silver Porsche 911 parked alongside. Shocked staff discovered Higgs hanging upside down by his seatbelt in his overturned 13-year-old car. The brief incident caused £60,000 (€75,000) worth of damage.
Dave Coombs, a dealer at the showroom, said: "It was amazing. We could hardly believe our eyes at the damage. There was glass and bits of broken metal everywhere, but Jack is such a gentleman he asked for a sweeping brush to help clear them up. I'm not too concerned about the cars - what matters is that Jack survived, which is incredible considering his great age."