Funny old world: the week's offbeat news
China's plywood ziggurat has last laugh
Developers razed Chen Tianming's village in China's Guizhou province hoping to make a killing from a lucrative resort in a region known for its otherworldly mountain landscapes.
But instead the tourists are flocking to see the ramshackle 10-storey wooden tower -- resembling something from a Miyazaki movie -- Chen built on top of his house in defiance of the bulldozers and the local authorities.
The teetering DIY monument to one man's stubbornness has been compared to the fantastical creations in the legendary Japanese animator's films "Howl's Moving Castle" and "Spirited Away".
Indeed, the higher floors where Chen sleeps sway in the wind, and dozens of ropes and cables tether the house to the ground as if the whole thing might one day float off.
"When I'm up here... I get the sense of being a nomad," Chen told AFP, gazing out at the distant mountains.
"People often say it's unsafe and should be demolished," said the obsessive tinkerer, "but I'll never let anyone tear it down".
People "dream of building a house for themselves with their own hands... but most can't" make their fantasies come true, he told AFP.
"But I made it a reality."
Jumbo snacks
One of the great things about convenience stores is that they are just so convenient, as a wild elephant from Thailand's Khao Yai National Park found out when it ventured out to have a snack.
Rain on me!
Whenever it rains in the United Arab Emirates, and it doesn't rain much, you are almost sure to find amateur weatherman Muhammed Sajjad, who has a fanatical following of "rain lovers who miss rain" among the Gulf state's huge expat Indian population.
Last week he led a convoy of 100 vehicles chasing rain clouds through the dunes hoping to find a drizzle in the desert.
Like many of UAE's 3.5 million Indians, he is massively nostalgic for the monsoon back home and that "amazing moment" when the clouds open.
After enduring the hottest April on record this year, fellow Indian Anagha was ecstatic about getting a good soaking.
"All of my family and friends are enjoying good rain" at home "and we are living here in the hot sun", she said.
Rubbish excuse
To Germany where an intercity train between Munich and Hamburg was brought to a shuddering halt because the crew thought it was getting a bit messy.
"We apologise, but... this train is too dirty for us to travel any further," they announced.
Many passengers thought it was a prank, with one sharing pictures of his seemingly clean carriage, until they were turfed out onto the platform at Nuremberg.
Germany's overstretched railway system has become the butt of jokes for its poor timekeeping, with Deutsche Bahn admitting the new stain on its copybook, telling AFP that the train had not been properly cleaned before it left.