A new law will go into effect on July 1 banning smoking tobacco indoors throughout the Netherlands. What this means for Amsterdam's historic coffee shops, where smoking tobacco laced with marijuana is more of the main draw, remains up for debate. According to reports, coffee shop owners say the new ban should not effect them because 'coffee shops' are a place where people go to smoke. They say it is preposterous for the ban to extend to their shops, just as it would be for food to be banned from restaurants, or alcohol from a bar.

A Chinese museum bought a pig for $438 after the animal was discovered in the rubble of a collapsed pig farm a full 36 days after a devastating earthquake struck the region. According to the Shanghai Daily newspaper, a local museum bought the pig and named it Mr. Strongwill. The pig was raised outside the city of Chengdu. He will live out the rest of his days at the Jianchuan Museum.

A local wildlife guide has taught an orphaned heron how to fly by flapping his arms and squawking. Gary Zammit, a 42-year old wildlife expert at the Gwel an Mor complex in Portreath, Cornwall, said that he managed to teach Dude, a heron he raised from a chick to an adult, how to take to the skies by first running across the field with food in his pockets. The food led the bird to follow Zammit, who then spread his arms and flapped them.

A woman was arrested after police found her hiding in a man's closet. She'd been living there for a year. Police searched the home of the 57-year-old resident after he saw movement in his home on the security cameras he installed when he noticed food had been missing from his refrigerator.

To boost the Labor Party's dwindling popularity, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has resorted to various methods of wooing Britons, including calling them at 6 a. m. to check their concerns. One recipient of his calls was Stephen Carter, who was on overtime work when Brown called. Carter was one of many Britons who had written to the prime minister. Brown responded to their letters by personally calling to look into their concerns.