An organiser of a village Christmas party has learned the dangers of asking stupid questions, after receiving a lengthy risk assessment checklist from Craven District Council.

"The council gave me a huge list of things we had to do. I wrote back, a little bit tongue in cheek, asking if I really had to risk assess free mince pies and a brass band, and they said yes."

The organisers will also have to warn partygoers that the mince pies contain suet and nuts, as well as checking the temperature and cocoa content of hot chocolate.

Smokers in Glasgow were accidentally prescribed Viagra instead of anti-smoking drug Zyban as the result of a problem with prescription software.

The Planetary Society are offering a $50,000 prize for designs to tag an asteroid which will come close to – and possibly strike – Earth in 2029.

But don't bother entering because Orion's entry is clearly the winner.

In what must be one of the more novel forms of legal defence, the lawyer for loyalist Michael Stone has claimed that his client's attempt last month to enter the Stormont Parliament building during negotiations on the restoration of devolution, carrying weapons and explosives, was actually "a piece of performance art replicating a terrorist attack"