From animal weddings to healing cows, some of the more unusual stories from Asia in 2004 seemed almost too unlikely to be true. But true they were.
Often buried under an avalanche of weightier news, these unlikely tales about the everyday lives of ordinary people reveal a lot about human nature, and the glorious diversity of Asian culture.
Whether absurd, amusing or downright bizarre, here is a selection of the year's "offbeat" stories in Asia:
NEW DELHI - Thousands of people looked on as a cow was married to a bull in a full Hindu ceremony in eastern India. The match was the brainchild of Lazmipati Rao, a resident of the Sambhalpur district in Andhra Pradesh, who said the idea came to him a dream.
KATHMANDU - A 75-year-old man in Nepal married a dog in a local custom to ensure good luck only to die three days later. Following a Tharu community custom which holds that an old man who regrows teeth must take a dog as a bride, Phulram Chaudhary tied the knot with a dog in Durgauli village in southwestern Kailali district. "He believed that this would help him avoid great misfortune later in life. However, he died a few days afterward," the state-run daily Gorkhapatra said.