Not The BBC News: 12 August 2013

A London travel agent, married to an Englishwoman with two children, was arrested and charged with being the former boss of a Sicilian Mafia gang, who has been on the run for twenty years.

Religious tensions are rising in Egypt, where the Coptic Christian church supports the interim military government; a group of Muslims recently surrounded a Coptic church and raised the Al Qaeda flag above it. (The church immediately barred its doors.)

The BBC is to broadcast a special episode of the children’s reality TV show “Marrying Mum and Dad” called “Marrying Dad and Dad” (although the ceremony will actually be a civil partnership) after the BBC approved “incidental inclusion” of gay themes in children’s TV programmes.

Coventry City fans are staging boycotts to protest at their “home” games being played in a different county after a dispute between the cash-strapped club and the landlords of the stadium in Coventry.

In a suburb of Asuncion, Paraguay, a crew of 20 men digging for 10 tons of gold allegedly buried 150 years ago have found no gold, but have triggered landslides.

In the US Open golf, Jonas Blixt of Sweden created an unusual record when his tee shot ended up in a male fan’s back pocket; after taking a free drop, Blixt birdied the hole.

After a teenage girl committed suicide following anonymous online bullying, the website’s Latvian owners have agreed to hand over the names of the bullies to police, apparently including those who continued to post abuse on the girl’s tribute website.

Norway’s Prime Minister decided to canvas voters’ real views by disguising himself and driving a taxi for an afternoon.

A US Human Rights commissioner whose email exchanges with a pastor included “I think […] you and your entire family deserve to burn in hell” and “Now be a good little bigot and go break some more laws” has argued that he need not resign from his post because he has apologised and because he “has no bias against religious people generally.”

Four British football clubs found out who they will play in Europe’s two club football competitions; the most westerly of the four European opponents is in Romania.

An Iranian Christian has been sentenced to ten years in jail for “membership of an anti-security organisation” and “gathering with intent to commit crimes against Iranian national security”; the evidence against him was that he was baptised as a Christian, attended house church meetings, led church meetings in his house, and distributed evangelical material.

A man who served time in prison for stealing IT equipment from a firm in Worcester is to be employed by the firm on his release from prison; the firm’s managing director said, “It is a risk I know, but it is a better way than him reoffending. He feels nobody cares. It's worth a try. If he is the man I think he is then he will grab it with both hands and make a difference."  

 And finally, a Russian man who was sent a letter offering him a credit card scanned the letter into his computer, altered the terms to  be very much in his favour, and returned it; the bank didn’t read the agreement, and issued him with a credit card. The man has now been told by a judge that he is not liable to pay £700 of late payment fees; furthermore, the man is suing the bank for nearly £500,000  pounds in contractual penalties, in accordance with his terms. The bank is counter-suing for fraud.