A British teenager has been banned from school because his parent's won't let him shave.

Akaash Iqbal, 14, was told his facial hair was against the strict uniform code at the Manchester Academy School and he would not be allowed to return until it was gone.

However, the schoolboy's father, Asif Mahmood, has refused to let Akaash use a razor because he is too young.

Mr Mahmoon said: "I thought it was a joke. I had a call telling me to have a razor on standby, shave him when he got home and send him back. I wasn't going to do that. He's just a growing boy."

Both the school and Mr Mahmood have refused to back down and Akaash will only return to sit his exams.

Toilet divorce

A man abandoned his new bride in Malaysia because she spent too long in the toilet.

The Saudi Arabian couple were preparing to head home from their weeklong honeymoon when the woman - a teacher - went to use the bathroom facilities.

However, instead of waiting for his bride - who paid for the holiday herself - the man decided to board their plane and flew home without her.

When the woman emerged from the toilet she searched the whole airport to locate her new spouse, only to be told he had flown home without her.

When she finally arrived back in Saudi Arabia, the woman promptly filed for divorce.

Hot hippo saved

A hot hippo got stuck in a water tower trying to cool down.

The over-heated mammal had to be rescued after it climbed the 10ft high wall of a water tower, plunged into the cool liquid and got lodged in the narrow pool in Nelspruit, South Africa.

Fortunately for the animal, a farm worker noticed water spilling over the sides and on further investigation, discovered its nostrils poking out the water.

Hippo hunter Chris Hobkirk, a hydraulic crane and cage and a team of experts spent four hours getting the creature out of the tank.

They drained the water, encouraged the animal into the cage and eventually lifted it to dry land.

Knicker bother

British police are hunting an underwear thief.

The man was chased from a house - which was home to four women - with an armful of female lingerie which had been stolen from the residents' underwear drawers.

The burglar broke the front door window to get inside the terraced house in Weymouth, Dorset, before being caught by a 25-year-old woman and her boyfriend.

The police are hunting an overweight white man in his 30s with a beer belly and greasy dark hair.

Spare penis removed

A Chinese man with two penises had one removed to please his girlfriend.

Ang Qiang - who was born with two sets of genitals - underwent a painful and intricate operation to remove his second penis because his girlfriend thought it was 'creepy'.

The 23-year-old man from Guangzhou decided to go through with the surgery when his girlfriend told him she would leave him if he didn't have one removed.

He said: "When we first started going out she was amazed but in the end she thought it was a bit creepy."

Vicar's sham weddings

A British vicar has been arrested for organising 180 sham weddings.

Rev Alex Brown was held by police on suspicion of arranging the fake weddings for illegal immigrants from Eastern Europe to claim British residency.

The 61-year-old congregation leader - who is believed to have ordained the ceremonies as well as help organise them - was arrested during a dawn raid on the St Peter and St Paul's church in St Leonards-on-sea, East Sussex.

The church has been closed pending police searches and three other people including a Ukranian man, an Armenian man and a Latvian woman, who was believed to be one of the brides.

Naked job

Staff in Britain went to work naked to improve company morale.

Workers at a design and marketing company in Newcastle spent a day working together nude to help boost team spirit after six of their colleagues were made redundant.

Business psychologist David Taylor told staff at onebestway shedding their clothes would help them trust their colleagues.

He said: "It may seem weird but it works. It's the ultimate expression of trust in yourself and each other."

Almost all of the staff members took on the challenge and company manager Sam Jackson said it was a brilliant success.

She added: "Now that we've seen each other naked, there are no barriers."

Pensioner beats off burglar

A British pensioner beat off a knife-wielding burglar.

Former boxing champion Frank Corti, 72, punched Gregory McCalium in the face several times and made a citizen's arrest before turning the drunken criminal over to police.

The pensioner, who lived with his wife in a village near Oxford, was shocked to find the knife-wielding burglar in his home.

He said: "I was scared when he first threw the knife, but most people would have acted in the same way. As I saw it, it was a matter of do or die."

McCalium - who suffered from a black eye and a bloodied lip - was sentenced to four-and-a-half-years in jail for aggravated burglary.