Some have called it a "meltdown."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu likes his ice cream — but he's frozen his annual ice cream budget after the size of it was publicized, The Associated Press reported.

An Israel economic publication, Calcalist, published an article last week pointing out purchases on the prime minister's annual expense budget, the AP reported. Netanyahu's office reportedly requested and was granted permission to buy up to 10,000 shekels -- or about US$2,700 -- of ice cream from the state budget per year, the Calcalist reported.

Following publication of the Calcalist's findings, the prime minister came under criticism at a time when he is working to pass an austerity budget that reportedly affects teachers, social workers and police officers, The Guardian reported.

Political opponent Shelly Yachimovich, leader of Israel's Labor Party, was critical of the ice cream funding in a Facebook post on Feb. 14.

"If there's no bread, let them eat ice-cream. Should we laugh or cry? Was that what he meant when he said there are no 'free meals'?" Yachimovich's post said, according to The Guardian's translation.

Netanyahu's office told the AP on Sunday that once the prime minister was made aware of this ice cream contract, he called it "excessive and unacceptable" and ordered that it be stopped right away, the AP reported.

But not everyone is upset.

"It's really a shame," ice cream maker Serena Kanfi told The Jerusalem Post. "He's also a human being. He should be able to eat ice cream wherever he wants."

"They have a lot of guests and invite a lot of people," Kanfi also told the newspaper.

Netanyahu has a fancy for vanilla and pistachio ice creams, according to the Calcalist.

Police in Britain are on the hunt for a group of four people, two of whom were dressed as Oompa Loompas from the movie "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory," after a man was attacked outside a supermarket in Norwich, police said in a statement.

Two of the males in the group of three men and a woman had orange painted faces and dyed green hair like the fictional characters in the movie, who work in the chocolate factory.

The man who was attacked had just come out of a kebab house next to a supermarket early Thursday morning around 3:30 a.m. (10:30 p.m. ET Wednesday) when the group approached him, police said.

One of the attackers pushed the man to the floor. He then got up, was hit on the head, fell to the floor and got hit again.

The attack left the man with a cut below his right eye, two black eyes, a small cut to the nose and a cut lip, police said.

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ATHENS – The spokesman for Greece's far-right party Golden Dawn threw a glass of water at a female leftist politician and hit another in the face on live television Thursday, causing a political uproar and leading a prosecutor to seek his arrest.

The morning talk show on private television station Antenna was interrupted by the incident and Ilias Kasidiaris was locked in a room at the TV studio but he broke down a door and escaped, the TV host said.

ITV News, which carried a video of the incident, reported that a warrant has been issued for his arrest.

Kasidiaris, who is a member of parliament, is sought for attempting to inflict dangerous bodily harm, which carries a sentence of up to 10 years in jail. However, the sentence can be turned into a fine.

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What was a heated debate over the June 17 elections descended into chaos when Kasidiaris threw a glass of water at the female leftist party member, Rena Dourou, calling her a "joke".

As other participants watched in stunned silence, Communist party deputy Liana Kanelli intervened on her behalf, throwing a newspaper at Kasidiaris, who called her a "commie", stood up, pushed her and hit her hard in the face.

Watch the video at ITV News

Golden Dawn won parliamentary seats in May 6 elections, riding a wave of discontent against illegal immigrants in austerity-ridden Greece. The party denies it is neo-Nazi, though its chief Nikos Mihaloliakos delivers Nazi salutes and has denied the Holocaust.

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Political rivals were quick to condemn the assault, and some urged Golden Dawn supporters to change their minds before the June 17 vote, which was called as no working majority emerged from the election last month.

Golden Dawn said in a statement on its website that Kasidiaris had been provoked.

Reuters contributed to this report. ITV News is the British partner of NBC News.

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A mother and stepfather who forced their 11-year-old son to live in a filthy converted coal cellar have each been jailed for two years by a British court.

The couple told police they locked the boy in the tiny windowless room as punishment for stealing food from the family refrigerator.

The child, who cannot be identified because of his age, was left to sleep on a dirty mattress with a sleeping bag for a blanket.

The rubbish-strewn room had no heating, a bare lightbulb and concrete walls and floor.

The couple in their 40s, who also cannot be named, both admitted a single charge of cruelty by wilful neglect at an earlier hearing at Preston Crown Court.

See the full story at ITV News

He was forced to spend nights in the outhouse, which was linked to the living room of the family home in Blackpool, Lancashire.

Judge Norman Wright said that the experience of being locked in a windowless room in "appalling conditions" had taken a physical and psychological toll on the child victim.

"It is bound, in my judgment, to be profound," he said.

The traumatized boy was made to live and sleep in the room, described as a "cell" by social workers, and reduced to using a potty as he was locked up each night until morning.

ITV News is the UK partner of NBC News.

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Reuters/Stringer

Seventy-six-year-old naked hermit Masafumi Nagasaki washes untensils on the beach on Sotobanari island, Okinawa prefecture, April 14.

Dangerous currents swirl around Sotobanari island, which has not a drop of natural water, and local fishermen rarely land there.

But 76-year-old Masafumi Nagasaki has made this kidney-shaped island in Japan's tropical Okinawa prefecture his retirement home, with an unusual dress code: nothing at all.

Naked, he braves lashing typhoons and biting insects as a hermit in the buff.

"I don't do what society tells me, but I do follow the rules of the natural world. You can't beat nature so you just have to obey it completely," he said.

"That's what I learned when I came here, and that's probably why I get by so well."

The wiry Nagasaki, his skin leathered by the sun of two decades on the island, worked briefly as a photographer before spending years on the murkier side of the entertainment industry. When retirement came, he wanted to get far away from it all.

He chose Sotobanari, which is roughly a 1,000 meters across and means "Outer Distant island" in the local dialect. It lies off the coast of Iriomote island, far closer to Taiwan than to Tokyo.

His resolve was tested relatively soon into his stay when a massive typhoon swept over the island, scouring away most of the scrub he had counted on for shade, as well as carrying away the simple tent he lived in.

"I just scorched under the sun," he said. "It was at that point I thought this was going to be an impossible place to live."

For the first year he lived on Sotobanari, he threw on clothes whenever boats passed his way. But slowly the island stripped away his embarrassment.

"Walking around naked doesn't really fit in with normal society, but here on the island it feels right, it's like a uniform," he said. "If you put on clothes you'll feel completely out of place."

He does throw on clothes once a week for a trip to a settlement an hour away by boat, where he buys food and drinking water. He also collects the 10,000 yen ($120) sent to him by his family, on which he lives.

His staple food is rice cakes, which he boils in water, eating whenever hunger strikes - sometimes four or five times a day. Water for bathing and shaving comes from rainwater caught in a system of battered cooking pots.

Each day is conducted according to a strict timetable, starting with stretches in the sun on the beach. The rest is a race against time as he prepares food, washes and cleans his camp before the light fails and insects come out to bite.

It isn't the healthiest of lifestyles, he concedes - but that isn't the point.

"Finding a place to die is an important thing to do, and I've decided here is the place for me," he said.

"It hadn't really occurred to me before how important it is to choose the place of your death, like whether it's in a hospital or at home with family by your side. But to die here, surrounded by nature - you just can't beat it, can you?" 

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CANBERRA, Australia -- And now a word from the Aussie communications minister …

Unfortunately for Stephen Conroy, the word that came out Tuesday on live television, right before a popular afternoon children’s show, was decidedly less than G-rated, AAP reported via the Sydney Morning Herald.

Answering a question at the National Press Club in Canberra about investment risk in Australia, Conroy said: "If a tax goes up, God, that is sovereign risk. But if a tax goes down, f---ing fantastic." He quickly added: "Excuse me."

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Conroy is the minister in charge of Australia's broadcasting standards. A spokeswoman for the Australian Communications and Media Authority was not aware of any complaints, AAP reported.

The children’s show that was up next? The animal show "Meerkat Manor."

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