A United States lab technician has admitted to performing sex acts on the dead body of a 92-year-old woman.

Anthony Merino, 25, could face up to seven years in jail after pleading guilty to desecration of human remains.

Merino was caught after a security guard saw him engaging in a sexual act with the body at the Holy Name Hospital morgue in New Jersey.

A post on Merino's blog said: "I work hard, so I party hard, that's my motto."

Semi-professional American football player Merino will be psychologically evaluated and prohibited from working at a morgue again.

Butt snaps

An Italian man has been arrested for photographing over 3,000 women's behinds.

Police arrested the man after becoming suspicious of him carrying a large bag and following women with short skirts around Venice's St Mark's Square.

The 38-year-old was angling the bag behind women when they stopped or bent down. The police later discovered he was filming through a hole in the side of the bag and recovered several DVDs containing images of ladies bottoms.

The man confessed he'd been hanging around the square for two years filming the lewd images. He is charged with infringement of privacy and could face between six months and four years in jail.

Armchair mummy

The remains of a Croatian woman have been found sitting in her armchair at home 42 years after she was reported missing.

Croatian police say Hedviga Golik, who was born in 1924, had made herself a cup of tea and sat down to watch television when she was last seen by neighbours in 1966.

They thought she had moved out of her flat in the capital Zagreb. But police, who broke in with bailiffs after local authorities said they wanted to check on its ownership, found her remains in the small property.

A police spokesman said: "So far, we have no idea how it is possible that someone officially reported missing so long ago was not found before in the same apartment she used to live in."

Unlucky hour

A United States man crashed his car, saw his house go up in flames and received a traffic ticket - all in one hour.

Justin Hill of Tennessee, suffered the worst luck when returning to his home. He turned into his driveway, but was unfortunately in the pathway of an oncoming car, causing a crash.

Hill's wife was cooking when she heard the smash and rushed out to see what had happened, leaving the stove on. Moments later the couple looked on as their trailer caught fire.

Hill later received a traffic ticket for failure to yield, resulting in the accident. He was treated in hospital but later released.

Gas tax

Estonian farmers are being taxed for their livestock's flatulence.

Authorities are making the farmers pay for the methane produced by cows.

A single cow is thought to produce, on average, 350 litres of methane and 1,500 litres of carbon dioxide every day from flatulence and burping. Estonia estimates cattle produces 25 per cent of all its methane emissions.

Drunk tractor

A Polish farmer could be jailed for drunkenly driving a tractor down a set of stairs.

Tomasz Jankowski faces prison after he tried to steer his vehicle down the city centre steps in the middle of a town square in Tczew in northwest Poland. He was attempting the drive for a bet made with friends after they had been drinking vodka.

Jankowski said: "After a few vodkas, the staircase seemed a lot wider than it really was and nowhere near as steep."

The tractor jammed and Jankowski fled the scene. The police caught up with him a little later after he returned to the pub for more drinking. A breath test showed Jankowski to be two times over the drink-driving limit.

Skull smoke

Two United States men have been charged after digging up a skull and using it to smoke drugs.

The tomb raiders, from Texas, told police they dug up a grave in an abandoned cemetery, removed a head from a corpse and smoked marijuana using the skull as a bong.

The Harris County District Attorney's Office has confirmed a grave has been disturbed and filed charges for abuse of a corpse, but said it was still investigating the rest of the story.

Cereal killer

Climate change could result in 'killer cornflakes'.

An outbreak of a poisonous fungus which thrives in hot and damp weather has been accelerated by global warming.

The fungus attacks cereals such as corn and rye and contains harmful mycotoxins which, if eaten in large quantities, can lead to death.

The mycotoxins led to disastrous results when they last infected the general food supply.

Addressing a conference on Environmental Health in Australia, researcher Lisa Bricknell said of an outbreak back in the Middle Ages: "People started suffering mass hallucinations, manic depression, gangrene, reduced fertility and suffered a painful, convulsive death."

Mycotoxins can get into the food chain through infected crops eaten by humans or livestock.

Drunk mower

A drunk United States man attempted to run away from police on a lawnmower.

New York officers were called to investigate reports of a tuxedo-wearing male at a house in the Irving neighbourhood at around 1 a.m. in the morning.

Police arrived to find the man driving away from them on his sit-on mower.

The authorities managed to stop and arrested him.

He was charged with driving while intoxicated - the charge was designated serious, as the offender had a previous conviction for drunk driving.

Historic SpongeBob

Children's cartoon character SpongeBob SquarePants has 'appeared' on a historic cabin.

The 10-foot high rendition of the yellow sponge-shaped cartoon character was created on a chimney, the remains of a cabin in the Pike National Forest in Colorado.

United States officials say the vandals used four different colours and took their time painting the picture. Police have no leads as to the identity of the mystery artists.

Forest service archaeologist Al Kane said: "I didn't chuckle. I kind of started crying ... . Apparently, they are Spongebob fanatics."

The cabin was a tree nursery until it was abandoned in the 1930s. Cleaning off the SpongeBob image will cost thousands of pounds.

Chocolate charges

A United States student was jailed after throwing chocolate at a lawmen. Sean McGuire was charged with assault after he threw M+Ms at the policeman.

McGuire's friend was being questioned in connection with a hit-and-run accident at a store on campus at Drake University in Iowa when store security guards noticed the multicoloured pod-shaped sweets dropping on the floor.

A police report said a further candy shell hit him on the shoulder when he turned around. McGuire claimed he was "sticking up for his friend". He was later released from jail after posting a £500 bond .

Shark defence

An Australian man saved himself from a shark attack by poking its eye.

Thirty-seven-year-old teacher Jason Cull was swimming off Middleton Beach in Western Australia when he saw a great white shark.

The deadly creature bit Cull's leg and tried to pull him under.

Cull said: "Initially, I thought it was a dolphin but when it came up and banged straight into me, I realised what it was. I remember being dragged backwards underwater. I felt along it, found its eye and I poked it. That's when it let go."

Cull surfaced and shouted a warning to other swimmers before swimming back to shore - with the shark circling him. He was aided to the beach then airlifted to hospital and treated for a serious bite wound on his leg.

Wallet reunion

An American woman was stunned to be reunited with her wallet that was stolen 35 years ago.

Sandy Baumberger thought she'd never see the purse again until it was found by a 30-year-old dental student who tracked her down to return it.

Eric Wherley found the wallet - which contained her driving licence and Social Security card - in a bathroom stall at school after a water pipe broke and loosened some ceiling tiles.

The thief who stole the wallet apparently had hidden it in the drop ceiling.

Baumberger says she and her husband are planning to give Wherley a gift for his efforts.

Raunchy textbook

A school in the United States is considering banning a German textbook because it features photos of naked women.

Students first noticed the scandalous pictures on a magazine in the background of a photograph in the Deutsch Aktuell book.

Joshua Sabik said: "We were actually doing a class reading and a few students noticed it and started giggling, and the teacher caught on and the whole class knew."

Joshua's mother Desiree added: "Oh, it was obvious ... naked women, breasts, right out there in your face."

Education officials said the books, which have been in schools since 2005, may be banned from classrooms or the saucy photo covered up with a sticker.

Eco-friendly bra

A Japanese lingerie firm has developed an eco-friendly solar-powered bra.

The garment comes with a detachable solar panel which can produce enough energy to power an iPod or mobile phone.

It is also equipped with plastic pouches that can be filled with water, allowing wearers to quench their thirst without having to buy and then throw away drinks bottles.

The bra is made of high-quality organic cotton, to ensure its production has the smallest possible impact on the environment.

But the 'Photovoltaic-Powered Bra' won't be available any time soon as it is still being developed.

Egg lizard

An Australian man was shocked when he cracked open a chicken egg and found a lizard inside.

Doctor Peter Beaumont, 60, said: "I was cracking the eggs into a pan when I noticed one of them was all cloudy. I looked at the shell and saw a tiny gecko."

Dr Beaumont insisted the lizard had not got into the shell after he'd cracked it open because the reptile was embedded between the inner-shell and the egg's membrane.

He believes it may have crawled into the chicken to feast on an embryo before getting stuck and the egg then formed around the lizard.

He has taken the egg, which he bought from a Darwin supermarket, to health experts for examination.

Gorilla trousers

An American man dressed as a gorilla robbed a man for his trousers.

The gun-toting criminal donned the gorilla mask to rob a woman at gunpoint in Tennessee.

But the plan went wrong when the 62-year-old lady refused to hand over her bag and kicked the criminal. He then ran away and demanded another man hand over his wallet and his trousers.

Police later caught up with 23-year-old Adrian Cornelius Alexander after tracking down his getaway vehicle.

He and an accomplice have been charged on two counts of aggravated robbery.