And Finally

Parents are hiring muscular men at a cost of between $450 and $1,790 a day – to protect their kids from bullies. The "uncles" come in different packages, the basic one provides a man in his 30s or 40s who will reportedly walk with the pupil to and from school while repelling bullies.

A lawyer who twice forged her transcript in an attempt to land her dream job has been struck off. Jaya Anil Kumar, 30, doctored the transcript for her law degree from the National University of Singapore (NUS) when applying to the Singapore Legal Service in 2013.

A long-dead anti-Nazi resistance leader struck a blow for freedom when his statue toppled onto a fascist vandal who was trying to destroy the monument and broke his leg. In the incident described by the authorities in the Croatian coastal town of Split as “savage vandalism”, police said

A devout Christian who was fired because she refused to work on Sundays has been awarded $21 million in damages. Marie Jean Pierre, 60, had her religious requirements accommodated by the Conrad Miami Hotel for nearly a decade.

A young Enniskillen man who admitted driving without insurance swore at his mum in court after she revealed his previous conviction for speeding to the judge. Judge Peter Magill, sitting in Dungannon Magistrates' Court, doubled 19-year-old Nathan White's driving ban after his mother's intervention.

A man who tried to smuggle a snake on a plane by stuffing it in his trousers was foiled by keen-eyed customs officials. The 43-year-old was spotted with "something in his trousers that did not belong there", officers at Berlin Schönefeld Airport said.

A top Israeli attorney suspected of offering to help secure appointments to the bench in exchange for sex has been arrested. The unnamed man is alleged to have nominated a woman for appointment to a magistrates' court in exchange for sex.

A Belfast man has been jailed after kicking a taxi driver out of his car and telling him "it's my turn to drive". Michael Mallon, 27, subjected the taxi driver to verbal abuse after being told the cost of the fare, the Belfast Telegraph reports.

House of Commons officials have fitted a tamper alarm to the bust of Oliver Cromwell in order to prevent Labour MP Stephen Pound from turning it to face the wall in protest of the military and political leader's record in Ireland. Mr Pound, the MP for Ealing North, has objected to the bust for a num

Police have apologised to a man whose £40,000 car was stolen twice in the same day, the second time from a secure police compound. Robbers armed with knives broke into the home of Phil Chambers, 30, and his fiancé to steal the keys to the Audi RS3.

A man caught on camera licking the doorbell outside a family home for three hours in the dead of night has been charged with criminal offences. Roberto Daniel Arroyo, 33, was filmed leaning his head against the front door intercom and licking the doorbell from different angles for three hours.

A motorist was arrested on New Year's Day after a roadside drug test showed a positive result – for all five detectable drugs. The 31-year-old man showed a positive result for the ingestion of cocaine, methamphetamine, opiates, cannabis and amphetamines.

The US Navy has finally abandoned an archaic practice of locking misbehaving sailors in the brig with only bread and water. The so-called bread-and-water punishment was scrapped by the British Navy in 1891, but has only come to an end in the US as of the start of 2019.

A woman who listed her "used husband" on eBay for less than £20 says she received "a lot of positive feedback" but no concrete offers. The advert, addressed to "women who may be interested", read: "Over the first two days of Christmas I have realised that we simply don't belong together any mo

A man robbed a bank on a remote Arctic archipelago that is home to more polar bears than humans. The armed thief stole money from the bank in Norway's Svalbard, in the Arctic Ocean.