“Melanie Schachner, 26, and Rene Schachner, 31, tied the knot in the buff in Feldkirchen after trying to find a way to make sure they would never forget their wedding day. With just a veil for the bride and a top hat to cover Rene’s wedding tackle for the official photos, the pair got hitched in a register office service in front of friends and family before celebrating in a castle. Melanie said: ‘We’re not ashamed of our bodies and we wanted to do something different. It certainly saved on a wedding dress.’ Maybe they got inspiration from Aussie couple Ellie Barton and Phil Hendicott, who conducted their nuptials in the nude back in 2009. They won a radio competition which awarded them a free wedding – as long as they both wore nothing at all.” w/ photo

“It looks like an insect that has been fossilized in amber – however it really is just a cockroach trapped inside a Butter Menthol. Glenn Franks went to his usual convenience store in Circular Quay to buy his favorite lozenge when he made the discovery. The 37-year-old said he bought a packet of Butter Menthol yesterday and was unwrapping a lolly as he left the store when he spotted the bug. “I was about to put it into my mouth when I saw it,” he said. “I went straight back into the store and showed the guy I bought it off just to make sure.” The Macquarie Fields man said it was just luck that it was him and not a child that went to eat the lolly. “I could have bought this for my daughter, taken it home and eaten it,” he said. Mr Franks phoned Nestle immediately and they offered to send him a ‘modest’ cheque and asked him not to speak to the media, he said.” w/ photos

“Sheep giving birth to dog? That’s so last season… meet the CAT who’s just become the proud mother of a kitten-puppy – also in China, oddly enough… Zhou Yun, the cat’s owner, says she knew her furry friend was pregnant so she wasn’t surprised when she happened upon two kittens at the beginning of the month. On closer inspection, however, she noticed that one of the babies was dead. ‘I then noticed the other kitten surprisingly looks like a dog,’ Zhou, who lives in Yangshan, in eastern China’s Jiangsu Province, told reporters. Zhou, who’s also the owner of a pet dog that likes to eat and sleep with its feline pal (hmm…), added: ‘Quite possibly the kitty is a mixed child’. Lai Xiaoyun, president of a local pet clinic, has sagely pointed out (after having a good look at the kitten-puppy, to be fair) that it’s impossible for a cat to give birth to a dog.” w/ photos

“Feline sleepy? Andre Potgieter has a pet lion called Storm that likes to cuddle up to him in bed in his South Africa home. Luckily, animal lover Andre Potgieter has nothing to fear from this particular 350lbs predator as the two have been best friends for the past four years. The South African farmer and his wife, Talita, took Storm in when her mother rejected her shortly after she was born in 2007. ‘From the first time she entered the house, she has slept in our bed between me and Talita,’ said 51-year-old Mr Potgieter. ‘As a cub, she had another habit of jumping into the bath with Talita and into the shower with me and then we had a wet little lion running all over the house that had to be caught and dried.’ Storm has also befriended the couple’s other pets, which include a zebra and three great danes. ‘When the dogs bark, Storm starts roaring and if she roars, they bark back. Our meerkat also watched over her when she was a cub.” w/ photo

“Passengers on a bus in Argentina got an unwelcome surprise when police found more than 600 snakes and other reptiles packed in the luggage compartment, a ranger said… The trafficker had loaded them with 444 boas, vipers and other snakes; 186 endangered tortoises; 40 lizards, and an armadillo. The smuggler, who was arrested, boarded the bus in Santiago del Estero, where he had spent three months trapping various species in the bush with the intent of selling them, Chersich said.” w/ photos

“Fashion student Lisa Dillon from Bath Spa University designed and made the ‘Jimmy Cheese’ shoes using West Country cheddar. The budding fashionista from the Department of Fashion, Textile and 3D Design crafted the high heels from cheese and bread. A block of cheddar was sculpted to make the heel and a stale cheese sandwich was used for part of the platform sole. The front of the shoe was moulded from more cheddar and extra cheese was melted and shaped to embellish the design. A range of ‘cheese couture’ footwear by students from Bath Spa Universirty will be displayed at the 2011 Royal Bath & West Show to promote the region’s cheese.” w/ photos

“Elephants made a bit of a splash as they soaked crowds with their trunks in Thailand to mark the Songkran water festival. In Ayutthaya province, 50 miles north of Bangkok, the animals filled their trunks to drench tourists and locals who were celebrating on the streets. The natural water cannons on legs were decorated with paint as they took part in the festival to mark the traditional Thai new year. The festival is one of the country’s most celebrated annual events and comes from an ancient custom to help guarantee enough water for the new season’s crops.” w/ photos

“After selling their house for $395,000 he gave every cent to charities, a court has been told. The man, 58, also has boasted he put all his bank statements in a bucket of water and made papier mache out of them. The man told the Federal Magistrates’ Court, sitting in Victoria, that he bought hundreds of envelopes and posted $395,000 in donations. He said he was now jobless, with $2,000 in the bank, a $1,000 car, and land worth $10,000. Magistrate Norah Hartnett concluded the man had taken the drastic action to deprive his wife of any money after 20 years of marriage. The $395,000 was the couple’s windfall from the sale of their family home, which went under the hammer before they split. After their relationship broke down, the woman went to court because she was concerned about what had happened to their cash. At the time, she was living in a refuge. By the time the case got to court, the husband revealed in an affidavit that he had disposed of it all. In a handwritten note, he later claimed to have donated it randomly. “I did it in an emotional way as I saw the greed of money destroying our marriage,” he wrote in a submission to the court. The man also disclaimed his interest in his dead mother’s estate. The man told the court he gave the money away anonymously to “eliminate the cause of the divorce.” w/ photos

“Mr Smith, 85, completed the 2,800-mile voyage from the Canary Islands to the Caribbean yesterday after 66 days at sea. The former BBC Tomorrow’s World presenter was joined on the adventure by a three-man crew of ‘mature and intrepid gentlemen’, who he recruited through an advert in a newspaper. They set off from the Canaries at the end of January on the An-Tiki – a sail-powered vessel built from 39ft lengths of water and gas pipes. It travelled at an average speed of four knots, with the crew taking turns to keep watch. ‘The word mutiny was only spoken about two or three times a day,’ said Mr Smith. After successfully navigating his way to the Caribbean island of St Maarten, Mr Smith added: ‘Some people say it was mad but what else do you do when you get on in years?” w/ photos

“It’s not your everyday foreign body,” the West Esplanade Veterinary Clinic vet said. But that’s what an X-ray of one his patients, a Burmese python (Python molurus bivittatus), revealed. In its attempt to eat a rabbit placed in its cage, the 12-foot-long snake managed to swallow its 3-foot-by-4-foot heating blanket in the process. Rich submitted the X-ray for Veterinary Practice News’ third annual X-ray contest. After considering about 60 entries, judges named it the grand prize winner in the professional category.” w/ photos