Town engulfed by 'hairy panic' and other tall tales

Our pick of the strange but true stories from around the world.

Australian town engulfed by 'hairy panic'

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The small Australian town of Wangaratta is being choked by fast-growing tumbleweed known locally as "hairy panic". A combination of extremely dry conditions and a local farmer who, it is alleged, "hasn't tended his fields properly", are thought to be responsible. The weed is toxic, and causes a potentially fatal condition called "yellow big head" in sheep if consumed before it dries out.

Last-minute reprieve

Nguyen Thi Hue, 42, is likely to avoid being executed for drug trafficking after getting herself pregnant while behind bars. Under Vietnamese law, any woman who is pregnant or has a child under the age of three cannot be sentenced to death. Officials believe that the woman paid a male inmate at the prison to provide her with a bag of semen and a syringe in order to impregnate herself.

Scammers reach new heights

A new variant of the Nigerian prince email scam – which offers its victims the chance to share in millions of dollars after a small up-front payment to release the funds – has surfaced in inboxes around the world. The most recent variant takes the scam to a new level, claiming that Nigerian astronaut Abacha Tunde has been stranded on a Soviet space station, Salyut 8T, since 1989 – and has millions in back-pay waiting for him, provided someone can stump up the money to bring him home.