China bans women 'seductively eating bananas'

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

'Erotic' videos of banana-eating outlawed in China

Chinese websites have announced a ban on young women "seductively eating bananas" as part of a state-backed crackdown on pornography. In a bid to rid China's internet of material that "harms social morality", popular live-streaming websites are now required to monitor all their output and block broadcasts from female users eating fruit in a less than wholesome manner, as well as those who appear on screen wearing stockings and suspenders.

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Algebra delays airline flight

A mathematics professor on an American Airlines flight was questioned by authorities after a fellow passenger mistook his differential maths equation for Arabic and told the flight crew that there might be a terrorist on board. Guido Menzio was removed from the plane, delaying the 40-minute flight from Philadelphia to Syracuse for more than two hours. "The lady just looked at me, looked at my writing of mysterious formulae, and concluded I was up to no good," Menzio wrote on Facebook after the delay.

Selfie topples Portuguese king

A young man attempting to take a selfie has accidentally knocked a 126-year-old statue of 16th-century Portuguese king Dom Sebastiao off its pedestal, completely shattering it. The man was arrested by police and will appear before a judge at a later date. The statue formed part of the ornate Rossio railway station in central Lisbon, a protected building under Portuguese law.