News you can lose: Hair, knickers and nuptials

Japanese man makes the record books for tallest mohawk; arch in China criticised for looking like underpants

Hair-raising record

Standing at over a metre high, a Japanese man's hair has claimed the world record for the tallest mohawk.

Rising to a spike, Kazuhiro Watanabe's hair rises to one metre, 14 centimetres and now has a place in the 2013 Guinness Book of Records.

Watanabe says it takes three stylists, three cans of hairspray and an entire bottle of hair gel to get his mohawk looking its best.

Revealing he has been growing it for 15 years, Watanabe, 40, said his locks normally reached down to his knees because the style was too expensive to have everyday.

He added: "It is a lot of work."

Friends share it all

Confronted with a demand by his bride to be that he also marry her three best friends, a Saudi man now has four wives.

The groom is said to have reluctantly agreed to marry the teacher and three of her colleagues, despite concerns from his family.

According to the Saudi newspaper Al Youm, the wives have now rented three apartments in the same building, but spend nights on rotation in the one in which the husband lives and also help each other with the cooking and cleaning.

Big knicker wicket

China's answer to the Arc de Triomphe has been derided as looking like a giant pair of long underpants.

Critics say the 74-storey "Gate to the East" in Suhzou does not so much resemble a triumphant arch as "The Pants of the East".

The skyscraper is the work of the British-owned architecture firm RMJM, which is also responsible for the Capital Gate in Abu Dhabi.

One Chinese blogger complained that walking underneath the building would be "like being forced to crawl between someone else's legs."

This ring I thee toss

A wedding was interrupted when the best man dropped and then lost the bride's wedding ring.

The wedding ceremony in England was brought to a halt as family and friends searched in vain for the gold band.

The wedding of Elizabeth Gray and Lewis Aubrey eventually took place after the bride's mother loaned the couple her own ring.

The ring was eventually found after the service by the vicar, who discovered it had slipped into a crack in the floor and rushed it to the reception to repeat the couple's vows.

Refrigerator in running

The fridge has been voted the most useful object in the history of eating.

It took top place ahead of the plough and the fishing net, in a poll of members of the Royal Society in London.

Artificial refrigeration, developed in 1748, also pipped tin cans and pasteurisation for the best of the top 20.

Insufficient funds

In an attempt to block their pursuers, bank robbers in Los Angeles made their getaway while throwing handfuls of stolen cash out the window to draw crowds.

At one point, onlookers were seen gesturing at the gang to throw more cash.

Despite throwing away thousands of dollars, two robbers were later arrested.