Olympic spoof drives Mankini sales

The Borat Mankini Thong has become Amazon.co.uk's surprise summer bestseller.

The item was famously worn by comedian Sacha Baron Cohen in Borat -The Movie.

But Amazon says recent sales have been driven by the popularity of a spoof video featuring members of Great Britain's Olympic men's silver medal-winning eight crew.

The Youtube clip, entitled Rowing, My Way, sees the team singing a comedy version of Frank Sinatra's My Way, with one member sporting the Borat-like swim suit on top of a mountain.

Since the video was posted, it has received over 21,000 hits and this attention has seen the swimsuit jump to No.4 in Amazon's Toys and Games bestseller chart, selling out repeatedly over the last four weeks.

Paul Sanders, senior toys buyer at Amazon.co.uk, said: "With the success of Britain's Olympians in the pool, we'd expected to see a rise in swimwear sales, but the Mankini's success has taken us by surprise.

"Maybe the rowers have started an unlikely fashion trend - look out for a Mankini on a beach near you this summer!"

Naked hiker's jail strip

A hiker jailed for walking across Germany naked has been allowed to go nude because prison clothes depress him.

Siegfried Grawert was sentenced to 10 weeks in Nuremberg prison for failing to pay fines for walking around natural beauty spots in the buff.

Now guards have given him a single cell where he can sit out his sentence without clothes.

"I do not offend anyone - being naked is the most natural thing in the world," said Grawert.

'Bigfoot' corpse was giant monkey suit

Researchers who thawed out a 'Bigfoot carcass' found frozen on a North Georgia mountainside found nothing but a rubber gorilla suit.

Matt Whitton and Rick Dyer staged a press conference last week in California to unveil their findings, which they said proved the existence of the legendary beast.

The so-called evidence, "a freezer with something appearing large, hairy, and frozen in ice", was handed over to Bigfoot researcher Tom Biscardi and his team for an undisclosed sum.

Mr Kulls, executive director of squatchdetective.com and an "independent observer" of the transaction, says that as the "evidence" thawed, the men's claims swiftly began to unravel.

As the hair became exposed, a sample was extracted and burned. The results caused "concerns", Mr Kulls notes, as the "sample melted into a ball uncharacteristic of hair".

"Within the next hour of thaw, a break appeared up near the feet area. As the team and I began examining this area near the feet, I observed the foot which looked unnatural, reached in and confirmed it was a rubber foot."

Matt Whitton, a police officer on medical leave, and Rick Dyer, a former Georgia corrections officer, announced their find in early July on YouTube videos and on their website.

In a press release, the men described the creature as a 7ft 7ins male, weighing nearly 40 stone with 16-inch human-like feet and reddish hair.

Jeff Turner, chief of Clayton County police which employs Mr Whitton, said he had not spoken to the officer but processed paperwork to fire him.

"Once he perpetrated a fraud, that goes into his credibility and integrity," Mr Turner told the Associated Press. "He has violated the duty of a police officer."

Man left naked and broke

A trusting German had to jog two miles naked to a police station after a woman promised him sex and then ran off with his clothes.

Felix Adler, 40, said he met the 24-year-old woman in a bar in Cham in southern Germany and they walked to woods on the edge of town where she begged him to have sex.

But as he stripped off, she fled with his clothes - including his wallet with £800 in it.

He managed to make his way to the police station and gave a full description of the woman to police who later tracked her down.

A police spokesman said: "He was very embarrassed and very cold by the time he got to the police station."

Noise bust for nursery kids

Noise control officers - used to breaking up rowdy, drunken parties - found themselves busting a nursery disco.

Kids were dancing to raucous classics like Bob The Builder and the Chicken Dance when officials in Auckland responded to a complaint from a neighbour to pull the plug on the bash.

Head teacher at One Tree Hill Kindergarten, Lisa Gordon, told The Dominion Post how a noise control officer turned up at their annual party at 6.30pm looking a bit sheepish.

"I think he must have been pretty embarrassed," she said. "It just strikes me as pretty absurd. It was only 6.30pm."

A spokesman for Auckland City Council said: "The noise was deemed by our noise control officer to be excessive. The music could be heard two doors down the road."

Staff at the kindergarten agreed the party had probably reached its peak, but were keen to point out that the noise hadn't prevented some of the younger partygoers from falling asleep.

"We're planning to frame the notice," added Ms Gordon.

As instructed, the music was turned down and the hell-raising kids partied on for another 30-minutes - until bedtime.

Body kept upright for 3 days

A Puerto Rican man has been granted his last wish - to remain standing, even after death.

Special embalming treatment was used on the corpse of 24-year-old Angel Pantoja Medina to keep him on his feet for his three-day wake.

Dressed in a Yankees baseball cap and sunglasses, Pantoja was mourned by relatives while propped upright in his mother's living room.

His brother Carlos told the El Nuevo Dia newspaper: "He wanted to be happy, standing."

Churches set up own gas company

A society of churches has set up its own gas company to help credit crunch families hit by spiralling energy prices.

The non-profit Society for the Supply of Energy to Church and Social Institutions aims to undercut commercial power companies by 10 per cent.

Officials say the German group buys gas directly from suppliers and is run by volunteers to keep costs down.

Chairman Johannes Baumgartner said: "If we can supply gas at a lower rate by cutting out the middle man, then we have done a good job. We just want to be cheaper.

"On the one hand, we have written into our statutes that we are a non-profit making organisation. On the other, we have a very lean administrative structure.

"We have outsourced the purchase of gas and the billing process, and already agreed fixed costs there. We are also trying to keep down organisational and operational costs to as modest a level as possible."

Now - to the horror of commercial power suppliers - the group from Baden-Wuerttemberg in southern Germany wants to expand.

"At first we want to concentrate on supplying gas to our parishes and to charitable and social organisations here in Baden-Wuerttemberg.

"If that works out well, we'll be glad to welcome others from outside who will increase our purchasing capacity," Baumgartner said.