A 75-year-old Greek woman’s excuse for growing pot on her balcony is for the birds.

Hariklia Griva, a widowed mother of four from the Aegean Sea island of Lesvos, was busted for growing cannabis with the intent to traffic this week after cops saw the healthy green plant as they passed her home.

The woman claimed birds carried the seeds and dropped them on her balcony.

“I had no idea what the plant was,” she said. “I watered it regularly.”

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An Australian air-traffic controller forgot to set his alarm Wednesday – forcing a 747 to circle aimlessly over a major airport until he could get into work.

The sky jockey turned up about 20 minutes late at Canberra International Airport.

There was another controller on duty, but because he was a rookie, he was not allowed to guide the flight from Perth himself.

No one was ever in danger, and the flight wound up being only 12 minutes late.

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A killer whale has learned how to bag a fowl meal.

Researchers at the Niagara Falls aquarium said the whale figured out how to trap seagulls by spreading fish guts on the surface of their pool water – and gobbling up the gulls when they land for a snack.

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In what could be a scene from “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”, more than dozen Buddhist monks battled it out on the streets of Bangkok with machetes – all over a woman.

Two rival monks – who had loved the same woman before they joined their monasteries – brawled along with their friends after they met by chance in a street.

A call has gone out to have all the monks involved defrocked.

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Japanese authorities busted a bunch of porn-flick producers yesterday – after they allegedly filmed inside a cable car at the World Exposition technology fair.

No one noticed the bawdy video shoot – but a probe was started after the work of dirty art was shown on pay-per-view.