"I never expected a mosquito to have such a great power. It really gave me a bad day," Huang said after recovering from last week's unlikely interruption.

TAIPEI (AFP) – A Taiwanese television presenter was hospitalised after a mosquito flew into her mouth, choking her and interrupting her live broadcast of a news program.

The mosquito got so deep into Huang Ching's mouth that it was stuck in her windpipe, setting off severe asthma, China Times media group said on Wednesday.

China Television Co had to urgently put on a four-minute advert while it drafted in a replacement presenter to carry on with the news.

"I never expected a mosquito to have such a great power. It really gave me a bad day," Huang said after recovering from last week's unlikely interruption.

The senior anchor spent a day in hospital.

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New York nabs bouquet-brandishing bank robber

NEW YORK (AFP) – New York police Wednesday said they have arrested a suspect who robbed banks brandishing nothing more threatening than a bunch of flowers.

Edward Pemberton, 44, a suspect in two bank robberies this month, was arrested in Brooklyn, New York Police Chief Raymond Kelly told reporters.

Pemberton allegedly came up with a disarming way to pull off his latest bank heist Thursday in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood: he approached the teller's window with a large bouquet of flowers.

A security camera photo published in The New York Post showed the suspect standing at the teller's window holding the bouquet while handing over a note, which reportedly read: "Give me all your hundreds, fifties, don't be a hero."

After getting 440 dollars from the teller, the robber fled the bank leaving the bouquet of yellow chrysanthemums, orange and red daisies and gladiola buds on the counter.

He also left his image on the video camera, helping police to track him down.

Pemberton is also suspected of involvement in a bank robbery a week earlier, in which he is alleged to have brandished a potted houseplant and made away with 2,325 dollars.

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Shampoo slows trains in south of France

MONPELLIER, France (AFP) – Rail traffic in the south of France suffered delays on Wednesday after a high-speed TGV passenger train hit a truck full of shampoo, police and the SNCF national rail operator said.

No-one was hurt in the mid-day collision at a level crossing in Lunel-Viel, northeast of Montpellier, but it took several hours for workers to remove the slippery shampoo from the tracks.

Nineteen mostly inter-city trains with around 3,000 passengers in all were delayed, with normal service only expected to resume in the evening.

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Family lived with 191 cats

STOCKHOLM (AFP) – A 60-year-old Swedish woman lived in a Stockholm suburb with her mother, her sister, her son... and 191 cats, the daily Aftonbladet reported.

Stockholm’s social services, who had been alerted to the case, said the home was in an appalling condition, with cats everywhere, including on tables, countertops and window ledges, sick or hurt animals, and overflowing cat litter boxes.

“There was an incredible stench of ammonia that made the air hardly breathable,” Marie Lundin, a Stockholm social services veterinarian, told the newspaper.

Many of the animals were sick or injured and 173 had to be put down at the house.

The remaining 18 cats were entrusted to animal shelters.

Under Swedish law a family can have a maximum of nine cats.

Social services representative Karina Burlin told the paper the family meant well.

“Such people really love animals and have good hearts. They think they can take care of them, but we don’t agree,” she said.

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Man uses crucifix to break into donation box

FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida (AP) – Police arrested a man they said used a crucifix to pry open a donation box and steal cash from a Fort Lauderdale church. Surveillance video captured a 48-year-old man breaking into St. John the Baptist Catholic Church last month and removing a crucifix from the altar.

He was arrested Tuesday and charged with burglary and theft.