A middle-aged man who calls himself the Hairy Christmas Fairy is doing good deeds across Cornwall. Dressed in a pink tutu, tiara, wings, a white wig and Timberland boots, the Hairy Fairy first appeared in a bakery in Helston where he bought a round of pies and pasties for customers. Since then he’s paid for groceries at a supermarket in Penzance and distributed lottery cards in Liskeard. “It’s not a joke or a hoax,” he told customers at the bakery. “I just want to buy everybody pies.”
Squaddie of the week
This year’s Miss Israel has been told she doesn’t have to carry her assault rifle during army service after complaining that it bruises her legs. Private Yael Nezri, 18 — the squaddie with the body — finished her basic training but said bruises show up during photo-shoots.
Advertisement
Tough love of the week
A Buddhist monk who cut off his penis with a machete after becoming aroused during meditation has refused to have it reattached. The 35-year-old monk told doctors in the Maharaj hospital in Chiang Mai, Thailand, that he had renounced the cares of the world. “We cleaned up the wound and gave him some stitches,” said a hospital spokesman, “but he declined to have it reattached because he said he had abandoned everything.”