Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Friday often brings some of the world’s stranger bits of news, from amusing to weird to hard to believe:

• Young people who are not yet of voting age, in Geneva, Switzerland erected the first new and relatively small minaret, defying the 29 November popular vote that bans them: in the Place Neuve, out of cardboard. Institute of Race Relations, UK (Ed. note: here is a design for homemade miniature cardboard minarets, in case they suddenly sell out in Swiss shops)
• Manchester, England: a 29-year-old man was shot dead when he and friends were confronted outside the money exchange where he worked. Police say he was robbed for cash and for his laptop. A 20-year-old is in custody. Guardian, UK
• A heavily drunk man in the Perm Territory, in the Russian Urals, was saved from flames by his cat. He fell asleep with a cigarette in his hand and when the apartment burst into flames his cat leaped onto him, scratching his face until the man came to and phoned the fire department. Ria Novosti, Russia
• Read more…

An Oxford University professor’s research into the men who make the best husbands, from a woman’s point of view, concludes that in countries with more egalitarian men, notably Sweden and Norway, women are happier to do their share of household work, marry or live with a man more often. Almudena Sevilla-Sanz, whose economics research focuses on time studies and households and populations, among other areas, placed Japan, Germany and Austria near the bottom of the list and Australia at the bottom. The UK was third and the US fourth. The study involved 13,500 men and women aged between 20 and 45 from 12 countries. It will be published by the Journal of Population Economics. Reuters