Software pirates have launched an astonishing smash 'n' grab raid on the music biz, stealing the domain name of one of its foremost anti-piracy bodies.

The Pirate Bay has now taken up residence at IFPI.com, a domain once owned by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI). The Pirate Bay now says the site will promote the International Federation of Pirates Interests.

"It's not a hack. Someone just gave us the domain name. We have no idea how they got it, but it's ours and we're keeping it."

Calling all true patriots: one of the Lads from Lagos has got himself into a right royal state and needs a quick $2k to fulfil a lifetime's ambition to hang a pic of Her Imperial Majestyness Queen Liz II on the wall.

A pleseant day to you, how are you doing,i want to ask you for a favour that is very important to me, though i dont know your state, and how you"ll take it, but honestly it is very important to me, pls can i get $2,000 from you, i need to purchase a 1960 state of the art portrait of the queen of england, it is about the oldest and best around specially when she was young, i have been longing to see one all my life, study and work on it, it was recently Auction by the museum of Lagos, Nigeria west africa.themyths of the painting is that it was painted and presented to the museum by the queen during her visit the country,during the their colonial years.

A McDonald's worker was arrested and spent a night in jail after serving a salty burger to a police officer.

Police Officer Wendell Adams said the burger he ate from a McDonald's in Union City, Georgia, made him vomit.

Ms Bull says she was mixing hamburger meat when too much salt and pepper accidentally spilled into the bowl. A co-worker tried to remove the seasoning.

"If it was too salty, why did he not just take one bite and throw it away?" she asked.

Police sent samples of the burger to the state crime lab for tests.

A terrified dad was held by police for 13 hours after they mistook a dummy of Lara Croft for a gunman.

He was pinned to the ground, handcuffed and quizzed - after officers spotted his life-sized model of the gun-toting Tomb Raider star, reports The Sun.

He had called cops, about nuisance phone calls he'd received, but when two officers arrived, one saw the limited edition 6ft statue, worth £1,000, standing in the darkness of his living room window.

Fearing it was an armed crook, the officers called in support - and David was held at gunpoint.

David, who runs a computer games store, said: "The back-up cops burst in through the back door and knocked me to the ground. One jabbed a gun in the back of my neck and said, 'All right - where's the gun?'"

A tree surgeon rescued by helicopter after he broke his leg in a 130ft tree suffered further injuries when he was swung into another tree.

Westpac rescue helicopter spokesman Dave Greenberg said Mr Finch suffered extra cuts and bruises after he was swung into a second tree while being lifted out of the first.

High winds and surrounding trees and power lines meant it had not been an easy rescue, Mr Greenberg said.

Three thieves who allegedly stole 14 global positioning system devices didn't get away with their crime for long. The devices led police right to their home.

Town officials said the thieves didn't even know what they had: they thought the GPS devices were cell phones, which they planned to sell.

According to Suffolk County police, the GPS devices were stolen Monday night from the Town of Babylon Public Works garage in Lindenhurst. The town immediately tapped its GPS system, and it showed that one of the devices was inside a house. Police said that when they arrived there, Kurt Husfeldt, 46, had the device in his hands.

A Japanese woman trying on a pair of jeans in a shop got a shock when she was stung by a scorpion hidden inside.

The woman, on the southern island of Okinawa, ended up in hospital for five days as a result of the sting, which was not life-threatening.

Officials told the Mainichi Daily News that the woman, who was not named, felt a sudden pain in her right knee as she tried the trousers on.

When she rubbed the area with her hand, the scorpion then stung her right index finger.

In the last year alone, some eight million units of toys were recalled in the U.S., according to W.A.T.C.H., a toy-safety advocacy group. But Kool Toys and Polly Pockets are kids' stuff compared to the hazardous baubles of yesteryear. In the spirit of the holidays, Radar presents the 10 most dangerous toys of all time, those treasured playthings that drew blood, chewed digits, took out eyes, and, in one case, actually irradiated. To keep things interesting, we excluded BB guns, slingshots, throwing stars, and anything else actually intended to inflict harm. Below, our toy box from hell.

It's a funny old world. Chinese manufacturers are copying the circuit boards and designs of products from Japan and Korea, and they're doing it so fast that by the time the originals arrive in the marketplace, they’re seen as the fakes!

Everything from designer clothes, handbags, Mont Blanc and other brand pens, expensive cars, golf clubs, jewellery, sports shoes (sneakers), many modern toys including many of the robots in the 'Robosapien' series and plenty more including CDs and DVDs is freely available from 'markets' all over China, and if you know where to look, at markets in Hong Kong, too.

Samsung is said to have been so concerned by seeing its phones copied on the Chinese market that it tracked the distribution channels back to the source and discovered the electronics guys responsible for copying their latest products.

After offering them a job with Samsung and a chance to go legitimate, they are reported to have declined the offer, saying that they were able to make more money by simply continuing in their pirate ways. What Samsung did next is not known.

Afghanistan's fun-loving Taliban have deployed a hitherto unknown tactic in evading detection in their war against UN forces: take refuge in 10-foot high, fireproof marijuana forests.

Despite Canadian troops' best efforts to burn down the monster dope plantations, the weed continues to offer excellent cover for the insurgents, Reuters reports.

General Rick Hillier, chief of the Canadian defence staff, admitted yesterday: "We tried burning them with white phosphorous - it didn't work. We tried burning them with diesel - it didn't work. The plants are so full of water right now...that we simply couldn't burn them."

And when they did manage to get a fire going, the results were predictable. Hillier added: "A couple of brown plants on the edges of some of those [forests] did catch on fire. But a section of soldiers that was downwind from that had some ill effects and decided that was probably not the right course of action."