Wide World of Weird

A weekly roundup of unusual news stories from around the globe, compiled from Times wire services:

Collect Calls Not Accepted: Call it a monument to one Israeli’s love affair with cellular telephones. A larger-than-life black marble model of the mobile phone that Guy Akrish loved to cradle now marks his grave in a cemetery in the southern town of Ashkelon.

“Hello, this is Guy, how are you doing?” reads the epitaph of the 17-year-old, who was killed in a road accident a month ago. Guy’s sister said his family decided on the memorial “because Guy so much enjoyed talking on the phone.”

A Strange Case of Cold Feet: A bride-to-be suffered a nervous breakdown the night before her wedding on the Greek island of Crete when she discovered the groom, dressed in her wedding gown, in the arms of his best man.

The woman was treated at a clinic after the incident. The wedding did not take place.

If the Cat Wasn’t Bit, You Must Acquit: Two Connecticut Rottweilers who were recently defended by Johnnie Cochran are now in more trouble.

Sheeba and Sampson, owned by the mother of basketball star Ray Allen, now stand accused of attacking a neighbor’s cat, which is now missing and possibly dead. Cochran, a family friend, recently defended the dogs against a barking complaint.

In the case Cochran argued, the judge imposed a 9 p.m. curfew on the animals. Cochran had asked for the dogs to be allowed to stay out later. If the canines are found guilty in the latest incident, Allen’s mom could be fined $77.

Creepy Tours Inc.: A Paris hotel is now offering “Diana Tours” that retrace the princess’ final hours. The Odeon Hotel even provides a black Mercedes to bring a touch of macabre realism to the journey. “People can say what they like about it, but there is such huge demand for this kind of thing,” the hotel manager said.

The $25 trip will take people from the Ritz Hotel, where Diana and Dodi Fayed had their last meal, to the Pont de l’Alma tunnel, scene of their fatal car crash. The tour then proceeds to the Pitie-Salpetriere Hospital, where Diana died hours after the accident. The three-star hotel says it will offer the tours until Aug. 31, the first anniversary of the crash. Profits will go to a charitable foundation set up in Diana’s honor.

Spanish Flu, Not Fly: Scientists will don spacesuits this week to exhume six corpses from an Arctic Norwegian cemetery to try to collect samples of a 1918 influenza virus that killed more people than all the battles of World War I. Risks that the deadly virus might thaw out and escape from the graveyard are tiny, the scientists say.

The 1918 Spanish flu swept the globe like a medieval plague, killing an estimated 20 million to 40 million people. Battlefield losses in World War I are estimated at up to about 13 million.

News McNuggets:

* A restaurant owner in eastern France has dropped Viagra sauce from his menu after a visit from government inspectors.

* British teachers were advised not to apply sunscreen cream to pupils because they could be accused of child abuse.

* An Israeli soap powder company is using the U.S. presidential sex scandal to sell stain-removing detergent. In a television commercial, the Lever Israel company suggests that its Biomat detergent can deal with even the most stubborn stains caused by what has euphemistically been called DNA material.

* Police in southern China have detained 11 people for running an illegal gambling ring in which people bet on laboratory mouse races.

* Wide World of Weird is published every Friday. Off-Kilter appears Monday through Thursday.