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The mayor of a remote Australian mining town has come under fire after saying that female "ugly ducklings" might benefit from its shortage of women.

John Molony told a newspaper last week that "with five blokes to every girl, may I suggest that beauty-disadvantaged women should proceed to Mount Isa".

The council has since been swamped with complaints from both men and women.

But Mr Molony has refused to apologise for the remarks, saying he was "telling it like it is" in the Queensland town.

Frankfurt - Alain Robert, a 45-year-old French climber, picked his way up the facade of a skyscraper in Frankfurt, Germany on Monday in protest against Group of Eight (G8) climate-change policies. Robert, 45, who has been dubbed "Spiderman" for his feats, attached a big poster to the 154-metre-tall Skyper Building before using his rock-climbing skills to make his way to the top. On the way down he removed the poster, then surrendered to waiting police.

The poster said, "Global warming kills more people than 9/11 every week."

A sculpture of the signing of the Declaration of Independence made from a one-tonne block of cheddar cheese glistened on the sidewalk of Times Square in New York on Thursday as an artist's tribute to the Fourth of July.
"It's very patriotic, using the signing of the Declaration of Independence, bringing Americans together for the Fourth," said Troy Landwehr, who carved the sculpture for cracker company Cheez-It to celebrate U.S. Independence Day.

He worked eight hours a day for a week in a 40-degree cooler carving the block of Wisconsin cheddar.

The British taxpayer was hit with a £50,000 bill for five helicopter flights taken by Prince William for occasions such as a stag party and a visit to his girlfriend's family home.
The flights drew criticism as an alleged abuse of the Prince's RAF training, which ended in April.

Ministry of Defence figures, released after a freedom of information request by The Guardian, have now shown exactly how much they cost.

The Chinook flight William took to attend a stag do on the Isle of Wight was worth £8,716.

A mountain lion attacked, killed and partially ate a New Mexico man, authorities said on Tuesday.

A search party found the body of Robert Nawojski, 55, in a wooded area near his mobile home in Pinos Altos, New Mexico, late last week, the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish said.

Investigators concluded that Nawojski had been attacked and killed by a mountain lion, or cougar, at a spot close to his home, where he lived alone and was known to bathe and shave outdoors.