Etc...

But it looked real

Acting on a tip earlier this month, police in Shenyang, China, dispatched four vans and almost two dozen officers to a street on which a jeep had been left unattended for several days. Why? Because a passer-by had spotted a man's hand poking up from among other items in a cardboard box in the back seat and assumed it might have been severed from a murder victim . Ownership of the vehicle was traced to a member of the Shenyang Opera. As for the hand, it turned out to be artificial - a prop in one of the company's productions.

If visitors to Bray, England, aren't prepared to fork over $120 or so for a square meal, then maybe they'd better pass up a trip to the Fat Duck. Lovers of fine cuisine, however, are known to descend on the establishment, which the British magazine Restaurant recently named the best restaurant in the world as part of its fourth annual Top 50. Chefs, restauranteurs, and food writers voted. A sampling from the Fat Duck menu: Poached Seabass, Radish Ravioli of Oyster, and Smoked Bacon and Egg Ice Cream. The world's 10 best restaurants and their locations:

1. Fat Duck Bray, England
2. El Bulli Roses, Spain
3. French Laundry Yountville, Calif.
4. Tetsuya's Sydney, Australia
5. Gordon Ramsay London at 68 Hospital Road
6. Pierre Gagnaire Paris
7. Per Se New York
8. Tom Aikens London
9. Jean Georges New York
10. St. John London