Need a break from the serious stuff? We bring some of the quirky stories from around the world.

US airlines are being ordered to spend up to $686m (€534m) to install a system to reduce the chance of fuel tank explosions like the one that brought down a TWA jumbo jet off Long Island in 1996.

Neither the pilots’ conversations nor any background noises in the cockpit of the doomed American Airlines Flight 587 showed evidence that a terrorist attack or sabotage brought down the plane, the head of the US National Transportation Safety Board has said.

Neither turbulence from another jet nor pressure placed on the rudder by a desperate pilot should have been enough to snap off the tail of Flight 587, aviation experts have said.

Investigators closely studying both black boxes recovered from American Airlines Flight 587, hope to explain why the doomed plane shook twice before breaking apart above a New York neighbourhood still grieving for its victims of the World Trade Centre attacks.