Nine out of ten Garmisch burghers prefer whiskers

The 25th annual Garmisch-Partenkirchen Beard Championships took place in, you guessed it, the town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, last week. Home to some of the most outlandish and intricately designed beards around, the festival celebrates the best of the best in the beard-growing world. The hirsute winner was the wonderfully waxed and curled – and wonderfully-named – Willi Chavelier who impressed the judges with his meticulously manicured facial hair.

I arrest you hoo hoo in the name of the people who put me in this silly outfit

Forget intrepid canines: police in Thailand have recruited a monkey, equipped with a little monkey uniform and all, to help keep the peace while on the beat. The aim, bizarrely, is to improve relations with Muslim separatists, but the little guy has also helped calm motorists at traffic checkpoints.

Fighting food additives with ire

Kids can be extremely unruly at times, as two Indiana police officers found when called to a day care centre to deal with an out-of-control 10-year-old. Their solution: to slap and eventually taser the child.

Squirrels swing from tree to teat

A group of baby squirrels who were made homeless after their tree was cut down found an unlikely surrogate in the form of a dog called Pixie.