W illiam Shakespeare was French, Google has changed its name to "Topeka" and Barack Obama ordered a takeout meal from Indonesia -- at least that's what the world's media wants us to believe.
Newspapers and broadcasters teased audiences with a string of mostly good-humoured April Fool's Day stunts Thursday, with the only angry response coming when a hoax radio interview suggested Bulgaria should unilaterally adopt the euro.
In a play on old Anglo-French rivalries, the BBC spun a yarn about how Shakespeare, Britain's most famous writer, could in fact be French through his mother Mary Arden, saying her name was in fact Mary Ardennes.
It even recruited former French culture minister Jack Lang to play along with the "discovery."
"Of course, we have Racine and Moliere, but we will make some room for him in our national pantheon of literature," he said.
The Guardian said British Prime Minister Gordon Brown had challenged opposition leader David Cameron to an election fist fight and printed a fake poster showing a scowling Brown next to the phrase: "Step outside posh boy."
Brown has recently been the subject of bullying allegations after a new book claimed he swore at advisers, turfed a secretary out of her chair for typing too slowly and grabbed a staff member by the jacket lapels.
The spoof story was penned by one Olaf Priol -- an anagram of "April Fool."
Meanwhile, the Sun tabloid proudly declared it had succeeded in creating "the world's first flavoured PAGE," next to a blank, white square which contained the instruction: "Lick here." The paper invited readers to "test our page here and guess the taste."
"We have exciting plans for multisensory branding of the Sun," said a spokeswoman for the paper's publisher News International.
The Daily Mail said the Automobile Association, which deals with emergency calls to car breakdowns, had given staff jetpacks to fly over traffic jams.
"The AA patrol van parks within a mile of the stricken member and the jetpack pilot launches from the back of the van," said the article.
A few British newspapers also ran a spoof BMW ad offering branded roundels for BMW cars in the colour of the political party the driver supports.
In Manitoba, the Winnipeg Sun got irate letters from dozens of readers after they reported the government was set to tax the Internet.
And Calgary-based WestJet Airlines sucked in more than a few people with an announcement about clapper technology on all its airliners, so that passengers could turn on lights and adjust seats by clapping, with the help of a headset transmitter.
Internet giant Google created its own April Fool's prank, saying it had officially changed its name to "Topeka" -- in honour of the Kansas state capital which had renamed itself "Google" in a recent promotion.
"Google has officially changed our name to Topeka," Google chief executive Eric Schmidt said in the company blog.
"Google employees once known as "Googlers" should now be referred to as either "Topekers" or "Topekans," depending on the result of a board meeting that's ongoing at this hour," Google said on its website.
The search engine also said it was launching "Translate for Animals," a new animal translation service.
In Australia, an elaborate hoax by the Sydney Morning Herald and ABC radio said soccer star David Beckham has been lured to join the country's World Cup campaign by a basket of fruit and a "get well soon" card after a recent injury.
With Pope Benedict XVI in the news over pedophile priest scandals, French religious news website I-medias said the Vatican was preparing to launch its own airline.
It said the carrier would be called "Vatican Air" after officials ruled out the names "Angels Airlines" and "RatzingAir" -- a reference to the Pope's former name, Joseph Ratzinger.
Indonesia's Bali Times said U.S. President Obama had ordered traditional fare from the country where he lived as a child after having to defer a visit due to a battle over health care reform.
It included a made-up quote from White House spokesman Robert Gibbs that Obama "decided to personally call up a restaurant in Bali and order some local food."
But in Bulgaria, a radio interview with a hoax IMF expert suggesting that Bulgaria should ditch its currency, the lev, in favour of the euro sparked complaints.
"We do not appreciate the misuse of the name of the IMF," IMF regional resident representative Tonny Lybek said after the Darik radio stunt. The Bulgarian National Bank said the joke was "dangerous" at a time of economic woes.
Jokes about immigration proved more popular in Europe.
Norway's Telemarksavisa reported that an influx of Somali immigrants to the south of the country was so heavy that all road signs would now be written in Norwegian and Somali.
In Sweden, the free Metro newspaper said electronic chips had been placed beneath the skin of all Swedes vaccinated against H1N1 flu, which would give them ticketless access to Stockholm's subway system.
In a bid to close the city's budget deficit, New York's mayor's office announced on its Twitter feed that Mayor Michael Bloomberg had decided to sell naming rights for Central Park, the East River and even ubiquitous former mayor Ed Koch.
"I appreciate the honour bestowed by the mayor when he included me with two of the city's major assets," Koch told Reuters by telephone. "I urge the bidding start at $25 million for me and $200 million for Central Park."
Coffee shop chain Starbucks announced it was launching the "Plenta," a giant 3.8-litre (128-ounce) cup of coffee and the Micra, a 0.06-litre (two-ounce) cup, saying it would meet customer demand for "more and less coffee."
A spoof website identical to the Boston Athletic Association's official site showed new, tougher qualifying standards for the city's annual marathon, as well as a much smaller total field of runners planned for 2011.
Achieving a Boston qualifying time, or "BQ ," is a holy grail for many runners.
The suggestion that most would need to slice another 10 minutes off their 42-kilometre race times caused howls of protest until the prank was exposed.
On a more scientific note, Britain's Independent newspaper reported that London Underground was in talks with the body that created the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland about putting a similar particle collider into the underground tunnel system on the Circle Line.
It said the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) has worked out that a particle collider could be created inside the tube line which will see proton beams travelling clockwise and counterclockwise "at speeds of 99.999999 per cent of the speed of light within feet of Circle Line passengers stuck in perpetual immobility."
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