"Tomatina" (tomato fight)

A reveler throws tomato pulp during the annual "Tomatina" (tomato fight) in the Mediterranean village of Bunol, near Valencia, August 29, 2007. The origin of the tomato fight is disputed - everyone in Bunol seems to have a favourite story - but most agree it started around 1940, in the early years of the dictatorship of General Francisco Franco.

Woman steals baby to keep boyfriend

Chinese woman who stole a baby in a desperate attempt to convince her boyfriend that she had borne a child has been jailed for 18 months, Xinhua news agency said Thursday. The 36-year old woman, surnamed Liu, pretended to be pregnant after her prospective in-laws vetoed her marriage because a tumor in her womb had made her infertile. Two days after entering the hospital in east China's Zhejiang province on her "due date," she stole a baby boy from the maternity ward while the mother was napping. She then called her boyfriend and asked him to take her home. Liu turned herself into police two days later and the child was returned to his family. Her voluntary surrender ensured her a light sentence, Xinhua said.

"Twins" split by 21-year-old bungle

Chinese "twins" have sued a hospital over an apparent mix up of babies 21 years ago until they were reunited by chance and neighbors' complaints. With the same deep-set eyes and broad mouths, Xiang Nan and Wang Yiwen went to court in Beijing wearing identical jeans and check shirts, demanding redress from a hospital they said 21 years ago mixed up Xiang with another baby, the Beijing Times reported on Wednesday. That baby grew up as Wang Yiwu, believing he was Wang Yiwen's twin brother. The two families lived in the same semi-rural district of Beijing and Xiang and Wang Yiwen met briefly two years ago when mutual friends brought them together, struck by their similarity. They dismissed the likeness as coincidence until late last year, when neighbors complained that a young man they thought was Wang Yiwen often ignored them. "Often people said that when they saw Wang Yiwen in town he ignored their greetings," the paper said. "When his parents told Wang Yiwen he mentioned Xiang Nan." Medical tests have now shown that Wang Yiwu has no blood relation to the brother and parents he grew up with, while Xiang Nan was 99.999 percent certain to be one of the biological twins. The boys and their parents are demanding a total of 1.16 million yuan ($154,000) in compensation and an apology from the hospital, which has said too much time has passed for any court case and the families' claims are "hypothetical."

Man loses top of his head in brain operation

A German court has awarded 3,000 euros ($4,100) in damages to a man who had to have the top of his skull replaced with plastic because of a faulty hospital fridge. Doctors removed the top of the man's head and put it in cold storage while they operated on his brain, the court in the western city of Koblenz said Tuesday. Because the refrigerator was defective, the section of skull was not kept cool enough and could not be reattached. Doctors replaced the bone with a plastic prosthesis. The man sought compensation of at least 20,000 euros on the grounds that the prosthesis caused him headaches, affected his balance and made him unduly sensitivity to the weather. Following consultations with experts, the court found that the operation had caused the man's discomfort, not the loss of the top of his skull. Compensation of 3,000 euros was "appropriate and sufficient," it said. "The experts consulted by the court concluded the new skull roof was better than the original," a court spokesman said.

Cars smash up man's home for 10th time

A German man said Thursday he feared he may have built his own tomb after a vehicle ploughed into his house for the 10th time. "If we stay, someone's eventually going to kill us. We're living in a time bomb," Manfred Sedlazek, 59, told Reuters. Sedlazek is reluctant to leave the house he built himself, which is on a bend of a busy road, but said it may be his only chance of survival. Earlier this week, a 40-tonne truck blasted through the side of the red-brick house in the village of Karlshoefen, in northern Germany. Sedlazek returned home from shopping to find the shattered vehicle sticking out of his living room. Police estimated the damage at more than 100,000 euros ($136,100). Nine previous smashes into the two-storey building Sedlazek shares with his wife have wrecked his kitchen, bedroom and garden, causing damage worth tens of thousands of euros.

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