Funny old world: the week's offbeat news

Dunkirk spirit In a rare alignment of the planets, Chinese Lunar New Year, Ramadan, Christian Lent and carnival season all came together this week in a fandango of fasting and feasting. And nowhere was the mid-winter bacchanalia more bonkers and bizarre than in the French port of Dunkirk, where the festivities reached their climax with local bigwigs flinging shoals of herring from the balcony of the town hall to tens of thousands of revellers dancing in the sleet and snow below. Many had warmed...