Paris - From Hitler topping the polls in Peru to the sport that is a kind of "voluntary drowning". Your weekly roundup of offbeat stories from around the world:
Thanks for locking me up
A homeless Turkish man found a quick way of getting himself a bed for the night - by insulting the country's president Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Speaking ill of the Turkish leader has landed thousands of his opponents, including many journalists, in the dock.
The 66-year-old had twice failed to get himself arrested so he could spend the night in jail, before finally succeeding by sounding off about Erdogan in a park in the Mediterranean resort of Alanya.
"I have nowhere to stay. I sleep in rubbish dumps. That is why I did it," he reportedly told a court.
Many thousands have been charged with insulting the president, an offence that carries up to four years behind bars, including teenagers and a former Miss Turkey.
Hitler triumphs in Peru
A man called Hitler Mussolini has been elected as a mayor in Peru despite carrying two of the most reviled names in history.
But Simeon Flores Hitler Mussolini's victory does not mean the march of the far right has now reached even the remotest corners of the Andes.
In fact, Hitler Mussolini, 45, stood for the left-wing Ahora Nacion party in Queropalca in the mountainous Huanuco region.
Nor is he the first Hitler to top the polls in Peru.
Doctor Hitler Alba Sanchez was elected mayor of Yungar, another Andean district, in 2018, saying he was "the good Hitler".
What the puck
Underwater hockey hopes to become an Olympic sport. But before that, it has an image problem to overcome, with many comparing it to "voluntary drowning".
It is so gruelling that its Asia tournament in Hong Kong was billed as "physical hell", with player Leo Lines admitting that "anyone that's got the puck" is going through "some level of suffering".
But having to hold your breath for long periods while battling with short sticks at the bottom of a pool builds a unique team spirit, Malaysian player Hui Chin Teoh said.
"It's like that sadistic study that forces everybody to survive together."
Japan-based Lines said he loves pushing through.
"I get a runner's high after games. I think that's part of the oxygen depletion, maybe."
Wrong Portland
A US Republican campaign committee spent $25,000 (R415,000) running an attack ad against a Democratic candidate in the wrong state.
The midterm election advert ran in Portland, Oregon, rather than in Portland, Maine, which is 5,177 kilometres away at the other end of the country.
Troy Jackson, the Democratic candidate for the Senate who was the target of the ads, was quick to eviscerate the Republicans, saying they "are so out of touch with Maine, they apparently can't find it on a map".
The 'Bird Reich'
American football team the Atlanta Falcons have ruffled feathers with their new logo, which instantly drew mocking comparisons with imagery from Adolf Hitler's Germany.
The 1930s-style design was given the bird on social media minutes after being unveiled against the San Francisco 49ers, with many lampooning its likeness to Nazi iconography.
"I must say, I was not expecting to wake up this morning to see that the Atlanta Falcons are preparing to invade Poland," one user quipped, while a second gave the logo "a nein out of 10".
Others got their claws into what they called the "Bird Reich", wondering if the team's next away games will be in "Dunkirk, Normandy or Stalingrad".
AFP