An early front-runner for weird news story of the week comes from
dear old Blighty, courtesy of the AP via Yahoo! News:

British student gets credit for expletive on exam

London, England - A British high school student received credit for writing
nothing but a two-word obscenity on an exam paper because the phrase
expressed meaning and was spelled correctly. The Times newspaper on Monday
quoted examiner Peter Buckroyd as saying he gave the student < who wrote an
expletive starting with f, followed by the word "off" < two points out of a
possible 27 for the English paper. "It would be wicked to give it zero
because it does show some very basic skills we are looking for, like
conveying some meaning and some spelling," Buckroyd was quoted as saying.
"It's better than someone that doesn't write anything at all." Buckroyd said
the student would have received a higher mark if the phrase had been
punctuated. Buckroyd is a senior examiner for the Assessment and
Qualifications Alliance, one of several bodies that grade British high
school exams. He said the expletive was used in 2006 by a student in
response to the question: "Describe the room you are sitting in." The
alliance confirmed the newspaper's story was accurate, but said Buckroyd's
decision to award the student marks was not official policy. "The example
cited was unique in the experience of the senior examiner concerned and was
used in a pre-training session to emphasize the importance of adhering to
the mark scheme: i.e. if a candidate makes any sort of response to a
question then it must be at least given consideration to be awarded a mark,"
the company said in a statement. It said obscenities on exam papers "should
either be disregarded, or action will be taken against the candidate,
depending on the seriousness of the case."