Cat tatts, silicon snogging and other tall tales

Discover the strangest stories from the past seven days

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It's been another week of unlikely news, including: • A convicted murderer filing a lawsuit against prison staff for dishing up soggy tofu • Mexico's president baffling Twitter users by posting a photo allegedly showing an elf-like woodland spirit from Mayan folklore • A theatre warning audiences that a new production includes "the handling of cooked egg", and • Researchers concluding that short people are more likely to be psychopaths. After all those tall tales, calibrate your sense of the absurd by trying to work out which of the following two stories is real and which is fake: • The Royal Navy has apologised for supplying officers with bottles of "non-alcoholic" cocktails that turned out to contain booze, or • US military troops have been warned that eating poppy seeds could stop them passing drug tests. Find out which tale is a little too tall at the end of this newsletter.

meanwhile... In odder news Prison puss: A hairless cat covered in gang tattoos is going to a new home after being rescued from a Mexican prison. The Sphynx moggy was found during a recent drugs raid on a jail in the city of Juárez, where human inmates had inked designs on the animal including one reading "Made in Mexico"– a phrase commonly used by Sinaloa Cartel-affiliated street gangs, Reuters reported. The one-year-old cat, which does not have a name, was taken in by animal rescuers and was set to be handed over to new owners at an adoption ceremony today.  Identity crisis: Birmingham school pupils were left stranded during a trip to the US after a hotel employee accidentally shredded their passports. The 42 teenagers from Barr Beacon School were skiing in New Hampshire when all but one of their passports was destroyed in unexplained circumstances. Birmingham Live reported that as the British Embassy scrambled to replace the IDs, the group "moved west to New York" to make the most of the four-day extension to their trip before flying home today. Headteacher Katie Hibbs told the BBC that the four staff members with the pupils were helping them "explore the city on a dwindling budget". Resurrected relative: A Chinese family who believed that an elderly relation had been cremated almost a decade ago have discovered that he is "alive and well", said The Mirror. The mix-up occurred in 2014, after grandad Zhuo Kangluo escaped from a care home. Soon after, he was mistakenly identified as a dead person who had been found at the edge of a roadside. But Kangluo's grandson recently spotted his supposedly dead relative on a missing person poster filed by officials in Chonqing province who were following up on reports of "a man acting strangely", according to the paper. After a DNA test confirmed the good news, "an emotional family reunion" ensued.

p h o t o   o f   t h e   w e e k Awesome aurora The Northern Lights dazzle above the Trossachs in Scotland on Sunday, when the so-called aurora borealis could be seen as far south as Kent and Cornwall. Photo: Kay Roxby / Alamy Stock Photo Read more

made for lovin' Long-distance lip service A "canoodling contraption" that allows lovers to kiss each other from afar has been stirring up a social media storm, said the South China Morning Post (SCMP). The pair of lip-shaped silicon devices simulate the pressure, movement and heat of the user's lips, and an app sends the snog to a paired device. Priced at 260 yuan (US$38) each, the devices are reportedly selling at a rate of more than 100 a month on Chinese e-commerce platform Taobao. Internet commentators are divided over the kissing machine, however. "Thank you technology," wrote one long-distance lover. But others find the device "downright creepy", said the New York Post, while one Twitter user asked: "Where's the tongue?"  According to the SCMP, a man named only as Jiang claims to have invented the device after "engaging in a long-distance relationship with his girlfriend – who is now his ex – for seven years".

From the magazine Squirrelling away narcotics  Chinese police say they have "successfully trained" six squirrels to sniff out drugs. The Eurasian red squirrels have "a rather keen sense of smell" and have an advantage over drug-sniffing dogs, due to the fact that they can squeeze through nooks and crannies and into tight spaces, said narcotics squad trainer Yin Jin. In training so far, the squirrels have done an "excellent job" of detecting drugs inside packages, Yin said, but added that the entire process had required "the patience for a flower to bloom". For more stories from The Week's "It must be true… I read it in the tabloids" section, subscribe to the magazine. Read more

Electric nellies Trumpeting glory A temple in southern India is using a robot elephant in "cruelty-free" rituals, after rights campaigners raised concerns about live animals taking part in festivities.   The 11ft-tall motorised model was donated by People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) India and actor Parvathy Thiruvothu to Irinjadappilly Sree Krishna Temple in Thrissur, Kerala. The Indian Express reported that the bot, which has an iron frame, is powered by five electric motors and weighs in at a hefty 800kg. The temple previously hired out chained, saddled and decorated real-life elephants for festivals, but ditched the practice owing to the high costs involved and "the growing incidents of elephants turning violent", said temple priest Rajkumar Namboothiri. "We hope other temples will also think about replacing elephants with robotic elephants for their rituals," he added.

quote unquote "Not sure I am dressed for this." Kate Middleton comments on her unsuitable attire of skirt and heeled boots before racing against her husband at a spin class – and winning – during a visit to a leisure centre in Port Talbot.

this week in history A grave crime On 1 March 1978, "one of history's most famous cases of body-snatching" occurred, said History Today. Two men stole the remains of film-maker and comedy artist Charlie Chaplin from his coffin in Corsier-sur-Vevey, in Switzerland.  Chaplin's widow, Oona, subsequently received a ransom demand of around $600,000 (£500,000). Police spent five weeks investigating the grave robbery before identifying the perpetrators, auto mechanics Roman Wardas  and Gantscho Ganev. The duo, who were political refugees from Eastern Europe, were convicted of grave robbing and attempted extortion. Wardas, who was believed to be brains behind the plot, was sentenced to four-and-a-half years of hard labour, while Ganev received an 18-month suspended sentence. The Chaplin family reburied their relative in a concrete grave to prevent any further exhumations.

Too tall by half True or false? The first story is false: the Royal Navy did not accidentally supply officers with boozy cocktails. But in alcohol-related news, a German brewery says it is close to creating the first ever powdered beer. The "eco-friendly innovation" could drastically cut both the pollution and costs involved in shipping beers, by eliminating the need for heavy glass bottles, The Times reported. Neuzeller Klosterbräu's managing director Stefan Fritsche said the product could "change the world". The second story is true. A recently issued memo from the US Defense Department advised that "out of an abundance of caution", troops should avoid eating poppy seeds in order to avoid failing drug tests. The warning came after a study published last year concluded that consuming poppy seed products could lead to "opiate-positive urine drug test results".

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