Odd news summary

EXPLOSIVE CHUTNEY

A woman has told of her shock after a jar of home-made rhubarb chutney caused her fridge to explode.

Margaret Goodwin, 66, of Henley was in bed asleep when she was woken by the noise of the fridge door being blown off its hinges and fired across the kitchen of her flat.

The explosion has been blamed on the chutney in the glass jar fermenting and causing a build-up of gas.

WATER WALLY

A 40-year-old American has been rescued after attempting to sail from Dorset to Ireland in a 6ft inflatable dinghy, Coastguard said.

The man had two paddles with him - one of which was being used as a mast accompanied by a plastic sheet as a sail - and the other was acting as the rudder, with limited amount of food and drink for the journey.

Portland Coastguard received a call from a range safety craft reporting concern for the man, who was approximately 2.7 nautical miles south of Durdle Door.

LOUD DRYER

Super fast hand dryers have the same effect on the ear as a road drill at close range, research suggests.

Researchers from Goldsmiths, University of London, said high speed dryers can cause discomfort to elderly dementia sufferers, affect the navigation of visually-impaired people and even force hearing aid users to turn their devices off when entering public toilets.

An acoustic test in a typical "box shape of a public toilet" found that the sound decibels reached by the dryers could reach 11 times more than those recorded in product testing labs.

TOURISM GUIDE

A guide has been produced for Paris hotel owners, restaurateurs and shopkeepers in the hopes that it will help shake off the city's reputation for snobbishness.

Do You Speak Touriste? - a guide to the cultural habits of some of Paris' most frequent visitors - was put together by the city's chamber of commerce and industry and its regional tourism council.

Apparently, Americans spend the largest portion of their budget on lodging, like to eat dinner at 6pm and do not hesitate to introduce themselves by their first names. While the guide says Italians can be impatient tourists, but a little attention to their children goes a long way.

CATS MOVE HOME

Eight cats accustomed to the creature comforts of a house that features an elevated feline freeway have not only been brought down to Earth, but squeezed into a 30ft motorhome with the family Chihuahua.

Gus, Sam, Dave, Stella, Lili, Eddie, Zander, Willow and Sadie the Chihuahua are biding their time in the motorhome, which is parked in the driveway of the San Diego home known for a quarter century as The Cats' House.

Bob Walker and Frances Mooney have sold the house as they prepare to move across country to Virginia. They had turned it into a human-sized cat condo with 140 feet of elevated highway, tunnels, ramps, a spiral staircase, rest areas and a floor-to-ceiling scratching post.

OAP STANDS GROUND

A masked robber thought the 96-year-old owner of a neighbourhood grocery store in Marshfield, Wisconsin, would be an easy target for his crime. But, he was wrong.

Margaretta Wolf has owned the store bearing her family name for 54 years, and she was not about to turn over her cash to the armed intruder.

The masked man ordered her to open the cash register but she would not, even standing her ground when the would-be robber flashed his knife. The frustrated robber spotted a security camera in the corner then fled.