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Falling icicles and ice blocks killed five people and injured 147 in St Petersburg follow­ing Russia’s coldest winter in 30 years. The high toll prompted residents and relatives of victims to demand action against those responsible for what they believe to be careless clearing of ice from rooftops. City Hall said that accidents were inevitable, given the scale of the ice-clearing after such a severe winter. “There are 13,500 roofs in St Petersburg,” said Yury Osipov, head of the city’s housing committee. “With the current record snowfalls, the roofs should be cleared weekly to prevent blocks of ice forming. That’s imposs­ible, not least because it would paralyse traffic in the city.” D.Telegraph, 24 Mar 2010.

Two bank robbers, one dressed as a leprechaun, were shot dead by police in a St Patrick’s Day chase. One of the armed raiders, wearing a green top hat, vest and shorts along with a fake brown beard and wig, fled the bank in Nashville, Tennessee, with a bag of cash. He leapt into a getaway car with another man and both opened fire on police in a chase. They ditched their vehicle and ran into a field, where they died in a shoot-out. (London) Eve. Standard, 18 Mar; Metro, Times, 19 Mar 2010.

Solange Magnano, 38, who was Miss Argentina in 1994, died of a pulmonary embol­ism (blood clot on her lungs) on 29 November following a gluteoplasty (butt­ock lift) in Buenos Aires. Close friend Robert Piazza said: “A woman who had everything lost her life to have a slightly firmer behind.” (London) Eve. Standard, 1 Dec; Independent, 9 Dec 2009.

Window cleaner Jeffrey Burton, 57, died after stabbing himself repeatedly in the groin with a jumbo souvenir pencil. Police found his body in a blood-soaked room in his house in St Leonards, East Sussex, on 27 September 2009. He was lying on his back, wearing only his underpants, with the giant, blood-covered pencil beside him. “It seems to me that it can’t have been a single stab wound,” said East Sussex coroner Alan Craze. “He seems to have worked on it. The pencil was blunt.” Mr Burton’s sister told the inquest the pencil had sentimental value to her brother as it had once belonged to their late mother, and he had used it in “yoga-like exercises”. D.Mirror, 6 Mar; Brighton Argus, 9 Mar 2010.

Another karaoke death: On 3 December 2008, Abdul Sani Doli, 23, refused to stop singing and hand over the microphone at a coffee shop that doubled as a karaoke bar in the town of Sandakan, Borneo. Three men on a nearby table confronted him outside the coffee shop, where a heated argument developed and Doli was fatally stabbed in the chest. Two men were arrested on suspic­ion of murder. The Star (Malaysia), BBC News, 5 Dec; Guardian, 6 Dec 2008.

Retired design engineer John Oram, 79, sneezed so violently it caused his brain to bleed, resulting in his death. Care home staff in Shaldon, Devon, had spotted him sneeze. Coroner’s officer Ric Parsons said it was the first “death by sneezing” case he had seen. D.Star, 24 Oct 2009.

A husband who decapitated his wife because she refused to have children told a court in March that he was going through a “mid-life crisis”. Postal Inspector Philippe Cousin, 53, killed his wife Nicole, 47, at their home in Arras, northern France, in April 2007. In 21 years of marriage, they had never had sex. She was a virgin and was afraid to have children in case they inherited multiple scler­osis from her side of the family. Cousin was sentenced to 18 years in jail. Metro, 9 Mar; Sun, 11 Mar 2010.