Funny old world: the week's offbeat news
Japan's office hell riders
It takes true grit and buttocks of steel to compete in Japan's ISU-1 Grand Prix, a test of endurance modelled on France's Le Mans 24 race. Except the gruelling Japanese race is run on office chairs.
Their faces contorted in pain and exhaustion, the losing drivers lay prostrate at the finish line amid a mess of broken dreams and chair wheels.
But Naoki Nishikawa, a member of the victorious team, said the two hours of hell on the Kyotanabe track near Kyoto was worth it. It "really showed me how important it is to keep going without giving up," he told AFP.
There be demons
Pause for thought all those who think anyone else would be better than Donald Trump in the White House.
Vice President JD Vance this week admitted that he is "obsessed" with unidentified flying objects -- though he is convinced they are actually demons, and they are up there zipping around skies ready to do us mischief.
"I've still got three more years as vice president. I will get to the bottom of the UFO files," he told a podcast.
"I don't think they're aliens. I think they're demons," which he defined as "celestial beings who fly around, who do weird things to people".
Udderly crazy
Five young cows have been enrolled in a French primary school in a bid to boost numbers.
Parents in the Alsatian village of Moosch -- yes, that's really its name -- brought Arlette, Abondance, Amsel, Amandine and Abeille to the school to register them for next year's intake in September.
While they took care of the paperwork, the cows amoosed themselves in a paddock in playground to the delight of the school's two-legged pupils.
Mayor Jose Schruoffeneger said the school risks losing a class after falling four students short, "so we had the idea to enroll the heifers" to make up the numbers.
"Obviously it's tongue-in-cheek," he told AFP, "but since this morning the phone has been ringing off the hook with enquiries".
Won't be Russian to Moscow
A German's sense of humour has landed him in deep trouble with the Kremlin.
Jacques Tilly, who depicted Russian leader Vladimir Putin taking a bath in blood for a carnival float, was sentenced to eight years and six months in jail by a court in Moscow.
But the artist -- who was convicted in absentia -- does not seem overly bothered, and hit back with a paper-mache creation for this year's Duesseldorf carnival of Putin being whacked on the head by a jester marked "satire".
All-you-can-eat marathon
To China where two runners whose antics at the Chengdu marathon went viral have been banned from all races in Sichuan province for two years.
One woman who stopped suddenly to perform the splits without breaking her stride -- and make a heart with her arms at the same time -- was condemned for endangering other runners.
Another competitor sparked outrage and laughter in equal measure by shamelessly filling his large backpack with energy gels and other snacks offered along the route.
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