Weird world - Strange news stories from around the world | Features | York Press

Saved by my love handles

10:50am Friday 26th February 2010

AN OVERWEIGHT American woman has vowed never to diet again after her spare tyre saved her life.

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Million-dollar mosquito bite

5:35pm Friday 12th February 2010

A TOURIST is hoping for a million-dollar pay day – after suing a hotel over mosquito bites. The woman in Saudi Arabia is suing a five-star hotel over mosquito bites, a Saudi newspaper has reported. She claimed that as a result of the mosquito bites she fell ill, started having severe pains and itching, while her skin turned red. She also had to undergo a medical examination and start treatment in a hospital. A court in the city of Jidda started considering the lawsuit. The woman is demanding that the hotel owners pay her five million Saudi riyals (about $1.3 million) in damages. Ouch!

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Student auctions virginity

8:53am Thursday 4th February 2010

Weird world A CASH-STRAPPED teen student has auctioned off her virginity to help pay for university. After attracting 1,200 bids, the 19-year-old has accepted an offer to sleep with a stranger, reports ABC news.

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Chip and spin

10:46am Saturday 30th January 2010

THE humble potato is involved in a PR battle to improve its nutritional reputation. A campaign has been launched by the Potato Council to reclassify the tuber as a “supercarb” – recognising its “unique dual identity” as both carbohydrate and vegetable, reports the BBC.

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Go home and multiply

10:37am Saturday 23rd January 2010

WORKERS in South Korea are being told to go home early – to have sex.

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Why Mona had reason to moan

12:36pm Saturday 9th January 2010

IT has puzzled art lovers for centuries, but a doctor believes he has unearthed the secret of the Mona Lisa’s enigmatic smile – she had high cholesterol. The BBC reports that Dr Vito Franco, from Palermo University, has announced that her face shows clear signs of a build-up of fatty acids under the skin, caused by too much cholesterol. He also suggests there seems to be a lipoma, or benign fatty-tissue tumour, in her right eye. No wonder she looks so miserable.

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Ding didn’t eat all the pies

3:44pm Friday 18th December 2009

NEW UK snooker champ, China’s Ding Junhui, has donated one of his prizes to charity – scores of pies.

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Here's a story that sounds like a plot from Porridge, the classic old BBC sit-com

2:15pm Friday 27th November 2009

Prisoners at a jail in Lancashire were offering a day out as a raffle prize – until this tantalising glimpse of freedom was withdrawn after the governor found out about it.

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Tearful way to ward off swine flu

4:44pm Thursday 19th November 2009

WHILE the NHS gears up to extend its swine flu vaccination programme to five year olds, army bosses in Moldova are taking a more natural approach. They are issuing their soldiers with onions and garlic in an attempt to keep the virus at bay, reports AP.

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Burglar leaves unusual clue

11:10am Friday 13th November 2009

Fingerprints are the most usual clues left behind for detectives after a burglary.

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