And Finally

Police have arrested a Methodist pastor who allegedly sold crystal meth from his church's rectory. Herbert Miller, the pastor of Woodbury United Methodist Church in Connecticut, was arrested in a sting operation following a tip-off, according to local paper the Republican-American.

Armed police officers stormed a hotel after a Harry Potter fan with a wand was mistaken for a knife-wielding lunatic. Police were despatched to the hotel in Enderby, near Leicester, after a member of the public reported seeing a man carrying "a large knife", The Guardian reports.

A village in France has voted to ban people from using their smartphones in public. Seine-Port, a village of fewer than 2,000 people around an hour's drive from Paris, backed the measure in a local referendum earlier this month, The Guardian reports.

A joint operation by two police forces succeeded in recovering 27 bags of ice stolen from a discount shop. For whatever reason, the 27 bags of ice were stolen from a Family Dollar store in southern Ohio on Sunday, NBC4 WCMH-TV reports.

A man who allegedly distributed business cards and free samples of cocaine outside of a casino has been charged with drug offences. The cards included contact details for "Alex Lee" and were stapled to small bags of cocaine, according to police in Calgary, Canada.

A police officer who sold his trousers online for a miserly sum has been demoted. Owen Hurley, an inspector with Hertfordshire Police, sold his police-issue trousers on Vinted for £4, the BBC reports.

A fraudster has succeeded in swindling over £20 million from a company by using deepfake technology to pose as its chief financial officer. In a cautionary tale for the AI age, the scam saw a finance worker in the Hong Kong office of a multinational firm invited via email to join a video call

A toddler who crawled into a claw machine and cheerfully lounged on the prize toys had to be removed by police. The three-year-old became stuck in the Hello Kitty-themed machine in a shopping centre in Queensland, Australia on Sunday, The Guardian reports.

A pigeon wrongfully suspected of spying for China has been released by police after eight months' detention. The bird was caught by police in Mumbai in May 2023 and found to have metal rings around its legs and a "Chinese-like script" on the underside of its wings, The Hindu reports.

A judge has posted a defiant response on Facebook after landing in hot water over her social media posts, including a racy photo in a hot tub with criminal defence lawyers. Judge Erika Ballou, a district judge in Las Vegas, is facing a formal investigation by the Nevada Commission on Judicial Discip

The dying ex-mobster who stole Judy Garland's ruby-red slippers from The Wizard of Oz will not go to prison, a court has ruled. Lawyers for Terry Jon Martin, 76, told a court in Minneapolis that their client had been tempted to make "one last score" before retirement, 6abc reports.

A government minister who took students to court for 'plagiarising' their own work has resigned after it emerged she plagiarised parts of her master's thesis. Sandra Borch, Norway’s minister for research and higher education, left government immediately following the revelations.

A new rule would allow politicians in the Missouri Senate to challenge one another to a duel. Senator Nick Schroer's proposed amendment was posted on X by Missouri Senate Democrats.

A man has been arrested on suspicion of robbing a bank just three days after being acquitted of robbing a different bank. Chicago man Mohamed Worku, 31, was acquitted of bank robbery on Friday after a jury found that his alleged actions were not intimidating enough to meet the definition of robbery.

A pastor who admitted pocketing more than $1 million from his followers says the Lord told him to. Colorado pastor Eli Regalado and his wife Kaitlyn are facing civil fraud charges in connection with a cryptocurrency fraud scheme which raised nearly $3.2m (£2.5m) from 300 people.