The adage "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me" is not true, according to a new book on insults. In the real world, words do have significant effects, says University of California Santa Cruz (UCSC) professor of humanities Jerome Neu in his new book, "Sticks and Stones: The Philosophy of Insults" (Oxford University Press, 2008).

Authorities said Monday that a 10-year-old Mexican boy glued his hand to his bed because he was still not ready to go back to school after the Christmas vacation. "I thought if I was glued to the bed, they couldn't make me go to school. I didn't want to go, the holidays were so much fun," the boy Diego told AFP.

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After a woman made a complaint to media regulator Ofcam about two Tom and Jerry cartoons with scenes containing smoking, Turner Broadcasting decided to search through its entire catalog of classic Hanna-Barbera cartoons to edit out scenes with smoking characters - unless the smoking character is a villain. The cartoons under investigation include Tom and Jerry, The Flintstones and Scooby-Doo. Spokesman for Turner in Europe Yinka Akindele said scenes with smoking villains would not necessarily be edited.

For some, art doesn't belong in a fast-food restaurant bathroom. An American tourist in Holland has made an official complaint to McDonalds after having been offended by a mouth-shaped urinal in one of its restaurants in the south east of the Netherlands. The customer made the complaint to McDonald's head office in the United States.