About a month ahead of Basant, an annual festival that marks the spring season and is celebrated by flying colorful kites, authorities on Thursday lifted a ban on kite-flying in Pakistan for a short time after almost a year. The sport was forbidden last year following a series of deaths caused by reinforced kite strings, but the government now lifted the ban about in the eastern province of Punjab and its capital, Lahore.

A man suspected of embezzling over $100,000 from his company attempted to elude police by posing as a monk. Chen Boshi, suspected of embezzling $126,500 from his power company, took refuge in a monastery in the neighboring province of Hubei, Xinhua news agency said Monday.

A car thief thought he could get away after stealing a Volkswagen in Moscow, Russia when the vehicle ran out of gasoline. Two passing police officers even offered their assistance by pushing the vehicle to the side of the road so the suspect could wait for a towing service. However, Alexei Ashurin was arrested immediately when the police officers noticed that the vehicle's lock was broken and a screwdriver was sticking out of its ignition.

A group of carjackers in Russia has found an innovative way to catch the attention of would-be victims. They entice owners of luxury cars to watch women strip naked on a beach. It was reported that the modus operandi of the group is to have three females to take off their clothes at the man-made Balashiksh beach on the Moscow River. As the women wash each other's bodies, motorists passing along would be attracted to watch the show and abandon their cars.