News of the weird

Phallic failure: The mayor of a town in Thailand has ordered the removal of more than two dozen phallic statues which had been used in a rain-making ritual. The phalluses, the largest of which is 10 feet long, were brought in last month in an attempt to placate the rain gods and end a six-month drought. Instead, according to many of the townspeople in Sena, they caused four recent fires.

Miami vice: A man wearing only a white apron and black lace panties was shot dead by police after he had allegedly tried to run them over with his pickup truck. The police had arrived after receiving a call about a naked man in the parking lot of a Miami apartment building.

Television spectacular: According to a survey carried out by Bournemouth University, only 8.5 per cent of leading characters appearing on prime- time television are seen wearing glasses. The study puts spectacle wearers in TV drama into six categories: Academic Smoothies, Reliable Bores, Grubby Lens Brigade, Trendy Trainspotters, Curtain Twitchers and Virtuous Victims.