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The Gothenburg, a Swedish ship last spotted in the Thames in 1745 sailed under Tower Bridge and fired a cannon salute earlier today. HMS Belfast fired a full gun salute in return, the first salute to be fired from the ship since it’s been berthed in London.

This Gothenburg is a replica, hand-crafted using traditional methods and materials dating back to the 18th century. Work on the project started in 2002. The ship is made up of over 50 kilometers of planks,70,000 hand-made nails, 10,000 bolts, 1,000 rigging blocks and 10 authentic, cast-iron cannons.

In the two years since the ship was completed, the Gothenburg has toured 13 nations along the Old East India trading routes.

The original ship sunk in mysterious circumstances en route  to Scandinavia from London. The ship’s captain and owner allegedly sold the Gothenburg’s cargo in London and then sank the ship deliberately to defraud insurers.

The Gothenburg will remain in London until June 2nd - the Swedish King and Queen will be visiting the ship Sunday.

A Belfast man has been sentenced to two years in prison for stealing nearly $500 worth of panties, bras, garter belts and stockings at knifepoint.

Robert Boyd, who wore a wig, hat and sunglasses to disguise himself when he held up the Orchid shop on Lisburn Road, told the court he was involved in a role-playing game. Apparently, Boyd was having trouble separating fantasy and reality at the time of the heist in December 2005.

Belfast Judge Patrick Lynch told the 45-year-old man that however confused he may’ve got his real life with that of “Buho the elf”, he’d committed a real crime with serious consequences.

“The courts will not tolerate (armed robbery), and will clamp down upon it,” Lynch said. “You must take responsibility for your own actions.”

Boyd’s crime was described in a statement given by the woman working in the shop at the time: “He was standing there with a knife, like a kitchen knife, standing there holding the knife towards me.”

Though the woman wasn’t physically harmed,  the judge felt it was clear she had suffered mentally.

Boyd will serve two years in prison, followed by two years on probation upon his release.

Nine-year-old John Parsons was bitten in the leg by a poisonous snake - but his extensive knowledge of reptiles helped save his life.

Parsons, from Kilmichael Glen, Argyll, Scotland was playing in his yard with a friend when he was bitten. He told the BBC, “It was like I had knelt on a thorn or a thistle, but when I looked down I saw a snake.”

The boy spent nearly four days in a local hospital after the incident. He suffered heavy bruising and swelling from the top of his leg to his toes. However, because Parsons was able to tell doctors the snake was a female adder, doctors were able to treat him swiftly with fluids, anti-inflammatory drugs and painkillers.

“An adder bite to such a small boy could have been very serious,” said Doreen Graham of the SPCA. “Deaths from adder bites are very rare, but can occurr if the victim suffers a severe allergic reaction. John’s knowledge of reptiles could potentially have saved his life.”

The boy’s interest in snakes and repitles stems from watching the late Steve Irwin on television. Parsons says he wants to work with animals when he grows up, just like his hero. “It wasn’t the snake’s fault, it was out in the sun and I got too close to it and disturbed it. It was just defending itself.”

The boy’s parents are, understandably, proud of his quick thinking. “He recognized it immediately as a female adder, and knew it was venomous and that there had been some fatalities in the past,” explained his father, Andy. “I am very proud of the way he and his friend Rachel dealt with the situation. They didn’t panic and remained calm and John knew exactly what to do.”

Some armed police in England thought they were in for a serious incident after chasing two supposedly armed assailants along the M62 near Harrogate, North Yorkshire. The police cornered the pair in a supermarket parking lot only to discover the threatening miscreants in question were two 19-year-old girls in costume.

The girls, Holly Spedding and Fatima Rupp, attended a Cowboys and Indians theme night at Chester University. The girls, still in full costume, joked with passing motorists and truckers along their route back to Harrogate.

“The lorry drivers were pretending to shoot me with their fingers,” said Rupp. “So, I pointed the toy gun back at them. Everyone was smiling and laughing.”

Everyone except for an off-duty police officer who misread the situation and called in a report on the girls for threatening other motorists. The chase was on, and before the girls knew it, they were being pursued by half a dozen police cars as well a at least one helicopter.

“We were petrified,” explained Spedding. “When we stopped they came screeching up and surrounded us. There were four jeeps, two vans full of dogs, armed police, helicopters and they were screaming: ‘Where’s the gun?’.”

The girls were taken into custody and held for hours while police finished their investigation.

A woman in the UK was fined £80 (nearly $160US) when her granddaughter dropped a bag of chips at a bus stop.

Barbara Jubb of Crawley, West Sussex picked the bag up and kicked a couple of chips into the gutter. She was then issued a citation and fined by patrolling wardens from the local council.

“I was gobsmacked,” said Jubb. “She promptly brought out her badge and said, ‘You are being fined’.”

Jubb’s daughter Selena said she thought it was some kind of set up for a hidden camera show. “It was that stupid,” she said. “People at the bus stop couldn’t believe what was going on.”

A council representative told the BBC, “We have apologized to the family for being overzealous and are happy to have canceled the fine.” However, Crawley Borough council said it wouldn’t apologize for targeting people who littered.

“People have a responsibility not to drop litter,” said Councillor Beryl Mecrow. “Littering annoys the vast majority of residents who use litter bins or take their rubbish home with them.”

Overcrowding on India’s trains is legendary - but sometimes it pays off. The driver of a stranded train in Bihar, eastern Indian, asked passengers to get out and push.

The train came to a screeching halt when a passenger pulled the emergency cord. Unfortunately, the train stopped on a bit of track with no electrical current.

Hundreds of passengers hopped off the train and worked together for half an hour to shove it to the next powered stretch of line - about twelve feet away.

“In so many years of service on the railways, I have never come across such a bizarre incident,” said a spokesperson for Indian Railways.

When 18-year-old Marcel Langer ran into difficulties planning a $50,000 jewellery heist, he roped his mom in to help.

“I could not believe it when he said what he was up to,” said Daniela Langer, Marcel’s mother. “I offered to drive him there to keep an eye on him. I was worried about him.”

Before the main event, she took her son to a local shop to stock up on supplies - he instructed his mother not to get fingerprints on the duct tape and rope she purchased for him.

She then admitted to driving her son to the jeweler’s shop, where he met up with two other men. She acted as the look-out while the trio broke in to the shop and stole around $50,000 worth of jewelry.

“I was so worried about what might happen to him that I went along to make sure he would be safe,” she said. No one’s sure who was watching her other four children at the time.

Joerg Weyrath, the shop’s owner should’ve asked someone to look out for him - he was stabbed during the robbery and is still recovering.

The thieves and Mrs Langer were caught when they tripped the shop’s silent alarm during the robbery.

There’s getting more bang for your buck, and then there’s those little hidden extras you never bargained on - Jorge Giro got just that when he bought a house on the Catalonian coast.

Shortly after winning a property in Roses, Catalonia, Giro heard about a fire nearby and decided to visit his new home to check for damage.

When Giro arrived to inspect the home, he discovered the mummified remains of its former owner sitting on the sofa. Investigations have concluded the woman, Maria Luisa, must’ve died in 2001 around the time the bank stopped receiving payments on the property.

Neighbors described Luisa as being in poor health. Apparently, it was normal that no one reported her missing - in neighborhoods such as the one where Luisa resided, people keep out of one another’s affairs. Adding to this, Luisa lived in an area frequented by tourists, with few regular residents. She was also estranged from her family.

Authorities were surprised, however, that the bank had auctioned the residence after foreclosure without inspecting it. One police spokesperson explained that Luisa’s remains were preserved through mummification due to the salty sea air.

A Japanese teenager strolled into his local police station in Aizu, Wakamatsu City in Fukushima today carrying a severed head in a bag. He then claimed he’d killed his mother.

The boy then led officers to his home, and directed them to a headless body on a futon. He told the police he killed her while she slept, adding “It didn’t matter who I killed.”

According to police spokesperson Hisayoshi Watanabe, the police have not yet determined that the head belongs to the teen’s mother. “If true, it’s horrifying,” said Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki.

The teenager has been arrested and charged with murder. According to the Kyodo news agency, the 17-year-old boy attends a Fukushima high school.

This is the latest incident in a spate of bizarre crimes in Japan involving dismemberment. On Monday, a human leg was found in Tokyo and earlier this year a woman was convicted of cutting up her husband. Last year, an unemployed man cut up his mother and abandoned her body in concrete-filled buckets in the back yard.

Susumu Oda, a criminal psychology expert at Japan’s Tezukayamagakuin University said, “There have been a high number of incidents involving dismembered bodies and I certainly think there is a chain reaction going on.”

David Williams of Dukinfield, Greater Manchester was held by police for 13 hours following a colossal misunderstanding.

Police were responding to a complaint regarding nuisance phone calls Williams had received when one of the officers spotted the six-foot-tall statue of Lara Croft and mistook it for a real, armed gunman.

The officers called for back up, and Williams was held at gunpoint. He was then pinned to the ground, cuffed and interrogated.

“The cops burst in through the back door and knocked me to the ground. One jabbed a gun in the back of my neck and said, ‘Alright, where’s the gun?’,” Williams said. “I said, ‘I don’t have one’ - they weren’t happy and searched the house.

“They must have soon realized what had happened because the PC who called for help was getting a lot of stick.”

Williams, who runs a computer games store, had the limited edition statue near his living room window. While this might explain the police officers’ mistake, Williams said, “I can’t believe the police would be so stupid.”