A bank robber dressed as an Egyptian mummy staged a successful raid on a bank in Vienna.

The bandage-clad robber walked into a bank in the Austrian capital and stood in line waiting to be served.

He then passed the cashier a piece of paper saying he had a hand grenade hidden in his bandages - and demanded all the money.

He then quietly walked out with a bag filled with cash before police could arrive.

In a real "LOL" moment a young boy who was up until half three in the morning playing World of Warcraft was busted by his mother. She's also an avid player of the game, proving to us that if anything you should not allow any significant others to get into videogames – forget about all the fun you can have with them and let this serve as a warning to us all.

The young boy was playing the game and made a forum posting at around 3.30am, to which his mother responded: "Pardon me for hijacking the thread, here.. But, Brion - if you don't want your mother to know you were up and on the computer at 3:29 in the morning - DON'T post on a forum that she reads. Busted. Grounded."

A king cobra snake has died after biting a Hindu priest in India.

The 3ft 6ins cobra bit Biswanath Kanwar while he was feeding it milk at Barapgahar in Jharkhand.

The snake lay motionless on the floor, vomited blood and died, reports United News of India.

The priest regularly fed milk to the snake at the Nagdevata temple at Barapgahar.

Members of the priest's family took him to a local hospital where he is now reportedly out of danger.

The dead snake was also brought to the hospital to be examined by doctors but there was no sign of any physical injury.

Rich pickings for the Schadenfreude minded at the China Post this morning. The paper reports that John Jenkins will sue a coal company after he lit a cigarette in a mobile toilet and suffered burns after being blown off the toilet seat and out of the door.

Jenkins alleges that methane gas was leaking from a pipe underneath the pedestal.

Oddly enough, Mr Jenkins is a methane power plant operator with North West Fuels Development. He wants $10 million damages from Eastern Associated Coal and Chisler Inc, the paper said.

His face, neck, torso and legs were badly burned. Ouch!

Two young Star Wars fans were critically ill in hospital last night after a homemade "lightsaber" blew up and showered them in burning petrol.

The 17-year-old girl and a man aged 20 were believed to have filled a fluorescent light tube with petrol before setting it alight.

However, their stunt went tragically wrong when the device exploded in their faces, setting their clothes alight and leaving them with horrific burns.

The horrific accident was revealed when firefighters were called out after reports of a blaze in woodland in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire.

When the crew arrived at the wood, the fire was out and they discovered the pair lying in agony on the ground.

Specialists said the burns were so horrific that each of the patients had only a 50 per chance of survival.

A German man used so much insect killer that he blew himself up when a spark from his computer ignited the aerosol spray.

Walter Mueller, 36, from Schleswig-Holstein, caused more than £100,000 of damage and debris flew up to 100 metres away.

But, amazingly, he was not badly hurt and was released from hospital after treatment for minor injuries.

Mueller had closed all the windows and emptied several cans of extra strong insect-spray before sitting at his computer to surf the internet.

A spark of electricity ignited the powerful fumes, causing an explosion that demolished the flat and blew out all the windows.

Several neighbouring apartments were also damaged but none of the other residents were injured. The street outside had to be closed for several hours.

Here's something quite sinister for armchair conspiracy theorists: it appears that US prez George Bush has final approval on the the UK version of Google Maps and has decided to redesign the world in a way that more adequately reflects his own particular vision.

If you visit http://maps.google.co.uk you'll start off with a map showing the southern part of the UK. Zoom out to maximum distance using the slider on the left, and then pan around to see a unique world view that would warm Dubya's cockles...

That's right. In Google's Brave New World, potential threats to US national security have been neutralised by airbrushing them from the surface of the globe. Naturally, the UK survives the apocalypse by virtue of its "special relationship" with the US.

"Mike Bolesta of Baltimore thought he would protest Best Buy's not-so-great customer service and pay his bill with 57 $2 bills. For his trouble he got to spend some time in the county lock-up." From the article: "..Bolesta was contacted by the store, and was threated with police action if he did not pay the [installation] fee he was told before did not exist. As a sign of protest, Bolesta decided to pay using only $2 bills, which he has an abundance of because he asks his bank for them specifically. Unfortunately for him, the cashier did not seem to understand that the $2 bill is indeed legal US tender, since the bill itself is not often used. After rudely refusing to take the money, the cashier accepted the bills, only to mark them as though they were conterfeit."

South London students are being warned of a scam in which they may end up parting with up to 200 quid of their hard-earned cash for nothing more than a laptop bag full of spuds.

Police say two scoundrels have targeted Southwark unis and colleges, claiming to have a laptop or other mouth-watering piece of kit for sale at a knock-down price. They show their intended victims a PC in a car boot but, after trousering the wonga, hand over a case packed with potatoes.

Det Supt Jane Corrigan told the BBC: "If it sounds too good to be true, then it generally is. You could be spending hundreds of pounds for a laptop case with very expensive potatoes inside."

Connecticut emergency management officials have apologized for an erroneous message sent to state broadcasters today saying an evacuation of the state had been ordered.

State emergency management officials believe someone pressed the wrong button.

Instead of running a test of the emergency alert system, midday television viewers and radio listeners were told that the state was being evacuated.

"There is absolutely no evacuation or state emergency," said Kerry Flaherty, of the Office of Emergency Management. "It was an erroneous message."

The department was investigating how the alert was sent.