News of the weird

Brazil nuts: The Macho Movement of Minas Gerais state in Brazil has named President Clinton its Man of the Year in recognition of his alleged liaisons with Monica Lewinsky. "Over the past year, no-one has done as much as Bill Clinton to honour the traditions of machismo," said the group's president, Luiz Mario Ladeiro. "Any president involved in this kind of scandal in Brazil would see his approval ratings go up, not down." Clinton is the first non-Brazilian to be honoured in this way.

Dead to rights: An undertaker in Palermo, Sicily, was fined 107,000 lire (about pounds 35) for parking his hearse at an angle to the kerb outside a church and leaving it unattended while he was waiting to collect the coffin. "The traffic warden wouldn't see sense," said Mimmi Maniscalco, the driver of the hearse. "I had to hold up the funeral procession while I finished my statement."

No sex, we're Japanese: The 364 vending machines for pornographic videos in Nagano, Japan, will be covered and out of action for the two weeks of the Winter Olympics.