A man in China has been growing the nails on his left hand for 13 years - to help him control his temper. Wen Jian, 41, of Changle, Fujian province, says he was always getting into fights before he grew his nails. His longest nail is 35cm (14ins) long and prevents him from making his hand into a fist. Wen said: "When I was young, I was very bad-tempered. I was very aggressive and always getting into trouble. "I decided to grow my nails to help me control my temper because it makes me think before throwing a punch." He is now better known for his nails than for fighting and has even opened a children's clothes shop, called Long Nail. "Customers are often surprised when they see my long nails but it has helped my shop stand out," added Wen. "A lot of people come just to see my nails - but then they sometimes end up buying something too." But his long nails have also brought Wen some inconveniences - he has to keep his left hand in a shoe box each night to prevent him from breaking off the nails in his sleep.

Council bosses in South Wales have been slammed for spending £190,000 on building bridges - for dormice. Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough Council put up three highwire walkways so the rodents could cross a bypass safely. The mice will be protected from nearby predators and will be kept safe from traffic on the Church Village bypass, which opens next month after a 20 year wait. The three bridges will help them move between habitats either side of the newly-built £90m stretch of road between Pontypridd and Talbot Green. Local resident Nichola Thomas, 34, said: "There are more pressing issues that the council could be spending money on. I find it absurd that they have spent such an obscene amount of cash on this bridge." Bethan Rees, 30, agreed and added: "It's an eyesore and it's ludicrous. If it was a bridge for us, I'd still call it a waste of money in this current financial climate. But Byron Bowden, 27, said "I think it's great that the council are protecting the local wildlife - its something we are proud of here and something authorities are usually dismissive about." Fiona McEvoy, from the Taxpayers Alliance, said: "Many taxpayers will think the council are taking the mickey, spending so much on a bridge for mice at a time when they're supposed to be strapped for cash." Coun Andrew Morgan, the council's cabinet member for transport, said the new road would reduce traffic levels in local communities and improve the quality of life of residents and visitors. "But we also recognise that we must ensure local wildlife and ecology remain protected as much as possible which is why we have undertaken such extensive preparatory work before the major task of building the road itself begins," he said.

A Scottish taxidermist is using animals knocked down and killed on roads to make sporrans. Kate Macpherson, of Beauly, Inverness-shire, has collected badgers, foxes, deer and stoats from verges. But she has been criticised by animal welfare campaigners who say she is encouraging the use of animals for clothing. Mrs. Macpherson said she was inspired by the badger skin sporran worn by her father's Army regiment. "If I didn't pick up these animals they would be rotting in a ditch," she said. "I'm creating something useful from them rather than allowing their beauty to be wasted." The mother-of-three's friends and neighbours tip her off on the location of road kills. Mrs. Macpherson, who trained in taxidermy when she was 22, has licences to handle protected animals, but has faced complaints from animal welfare groups. Lynda Korimboccus, head of the Scottish Animal Rights Alliance, said the use of the animals - even if they were killed on a road - was wrong. She added: "Using a dead animal for clothing perpetuates the idea that that's what animals are for."

An Austrian zoo used Big Brother-style camera to produce these amazing images of the moment when a giant panda Yang Yang welcome her newborn baby into the world. Vets at the Schonbrunn Zoo in Vienna installed a special video system to watch the birth in a special nest inside the panda enclosure. The cub - who weighs less than two ounces and is just six inches long - is seen crawling along mum Yang Yang's tummy before she picks it up tenderly in her mouth, which is part of the bonding process. Panda specialist Eveline Dungl said: "We watched the mother in labour by means of a video camera and didn't take our eyes off her until we knew she had accepted her baby." Now zoo bosses plan to close the panda enclosure to visitors to give the cub - as yet unnamed - more time to bond with mum. "A lot of young pandas die in their first year so we are keeping a very close eye on this," said a zoo spokesman..

Japanese sumo wrestlers have been given iPads because their fingers are too fat to use mobile phones. The Japan Sumo Association is distributing about 60 iPads among training stables and top officials to help improve communication. "It seems rather easy to use," said association chief Hanaregoma. "Sending emails was very easy." The 62-year-old former wrestler admitted that while he can read incoming text messages on his mobile phone, he does not know how to write replies and does not usually use a computer. The iPad was chosen because the sumo association believed the device was big enough to cater for wrestler's fat fingers, unlike the smaller keys on mobile phones. Sumo officials decided to go digital and buy iPads as the ancient sport attempts to mend its ways after scandals over wrestlers' ties with gangsters and illegal gambling, match-fixing and brutal hazing of apprentices.

A German skydiver solved a Rubik's Cube while sitting in a rubber dinghy - as it plunged to earth from 14,000ft. Ludwig Fichte, 29, was filmed completing the classic puzzle while falling 5,900ft in 31.5 seconds. He then deployed his parachute and floated to the ground. Mr. Fichte, from Dresden, said: "Solving the Rubik's Cube in freefall has been done before by three people, as far as I know. But I am the first to do it in a rubber boat. "I want to try the skydive again - some ideas would be to compete with another speedcuber sitting in the boat or solving two cubes in a row."

An artist is hoping to capture the current mood of recession-hit, rain-soaked Britain by staging a mass sulk. Barrie J Davies, 32, wants hundreds of people to stand outside Cardiff City Hall looking miserable. The 'sulkathon' will take place in Cardiff soon. Mr. Davies says he hopes that the mass sulk will "explore life's depressions and anxieties and hopefully it will exorcise some of those demons". "I hope an hour of morose silence will capture the mood of the moment," he added.

A US city is to pay more than £100,000 compensation to seven students who were arrested for dressing up as zombies. The seven sued Minneapolis city attorney's office after they were arrested and jailed for two days but never charged with any crime. They said they wore white face powder, fake blood and dark eye make-up in downtown Minneapolis to protest "mindless" consumerism. The protesters were walking in a stiff, lurching fashion and carrying four bags of sound equipment to amplify music from an iPod. Police officers who arrested them said they were carrying equipment that simulated "weapons of mass destruction." A US District Judge dismissed the zombies' lawsuit, but it was resurrected by the Court of Appeals which concluded police lacked probable cause to arrest the seven. That decision would have led to a federal trial this autumn had the city not agreed to pay the £107,000 settlement. One of the seven zombies, Raphi Rechitsky, 27, of Minneapolis, said: "I feel great that the city is being held accountable for the actions of their police." Mr. Rechitsky, a sociology student at the University of Minnesota, said he and his friends were performing street theatre when they were arrested. Minneapolis City Attorney Susan L. Segal said: "We believe the police acted reasonably, but you never know what a jury is going to do with a case."

More than 100 naked thrill-seekers stripped off to ride into the record books - on a rollercoaster. A total of 102 enthusiasts bared all to take their seats on the Green Scream rollercoaster at Southend-on-Sea, Essex. Organisers were aiming to beat a record set at Alton Towers in 2004 when 32 people rode a rollercoaster naked. The latest record bid took place at Southend pleasure park, Adventure Island, to raise money for Southend Hospital's Bosom Pals Appeal. Organiser Tracy Jones said: "We wanted to raise as much money as possible for this brilliant charity and give everybody who was brave enough, the chance to be part of the world record. Consequently, we had to run the Naked Rollercoaster three times." Barbara Warner, of the Bosom Pals Appeal, said: "It takes of lot of nerve to take off all your clothes' in front of so many people and the world's media. "We would like to say a massive thank you to everyone who was brave enough to bare all and raise such a huge amount of cash - more than £22,000 - for our vitally important cause."