ODD STORIES IN THE NEWS
PIONEERING PIER
The 200th anniversary of the opening of Britain's first seaside pier is being marked this month.
Ryde pier on the Isle of Wight opened on July 26 1814, and today still stands as a reminder of the feat of Victorian engineering. It was the original seaside pier and paved the way for dozens of others up and down Britain, from Dunoon in Scotland to Falmouth in Cornwall.
Derek Tomlinson, volunteer co-ordinator at the Historic Ryde Society, said: "In the 1950s and 1960s, the use of the pier was phenomenal. It's half a mile long and at times you would have people queuing for the boats." Carol Strong, a volunteer with the Ryde Social Heritage Group, said an all-day party will be held on the pier on July 27 to mark its 200th anniversary.
DANGEROUS GAMEAn 11-year-old boy needed hospital treatment after being bitten by a venomous snake as he played football near his home.
The adder sank its fangs into Carl Jefferies' left leg when he went to fetch a ball from a bramble bush in in Farnworth, Lancashire, The Bolton News reported. He was taken to hospital with a swollen ankle, and has since suffered from vomiting and dizziness.
Carl's mother, Kim Jefferies, said her son had been traumatised by the incident and had to take a week off school because he was so ill. "As soon as I saw it I knew it was an adder bite because I had heard of other similar incidents and it looked exactly the same," she said.
TESTING TOWN
Learners gearing up to take their first driving test are twice as likely to pass in Scotland as those in London, according to analysis of driving test results by a car insurance company.
Its analysis reveals that London has the test centres with the four lowest pass rates in the country for first time test-takers. Only 31% of learner drivers in Belvedere passing the first time, while Wanstead (32%), Barking (32%) and Wood Green (33%) were the other lowest scoring centres in the capital, all with first time pass rates significantly below the national average (48%), the study by Privilege Car Insurance found.
By contrast, Scotland dominates the top of the table for successful first time novice drivers, with a 70% pass rate in Kelso. Lochgilphead (69%) and Stranraer (67%) were other top scorers.
PET RESCUE
A family dog has been hailed a hero for licking the face of a sleeping, deaf 13-year-old boy to alert him that his house was on fire.
Nick Lamb was home alone in Indianapolis and sleeping without his hearing aids when the blaze began. Fire officials said the pit bull named Ace licked the teenager's face until he awoke to find the house filling with smoke.
Nick quickly covered his nose and mouth with his T-shirt and fled outside uninjured. He told firefighters this was the first summer he had been old enough to stay home alone.
PREHISTORIC PILFERERS
Police are looking for a man and a woman caught on video stealing a baby dinosaur replica from the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences.
Officers said a young couple passed through the Prehistoric North Carolina exhibit while other visitors were in the area. They returned three minutes later and the man jumped the exhibit barrier, picked up the dinosaur casting, climbed out and put it in a bag carried by the woman.
The stolen polymer resin model of an Edmontosaurus hatchling is about 12in-14in (30.5cm-35.5cm) long and worth about 10,000 dollars (£5,800). Police said the pair are also suspects in a similar offence on the same day at the nearby Museum of History.
BUZZ BOMB
A suspicious device at a US power plant turned out not to be a bomb - but it might have hurt a mosquito or two.
Security guards spotted the object at the Jim Bridger Power Plant in Wyoming, with wires connected to a small battery, and the bomb squad was called.
Sweetwater County sheriff's officials said bomb experts looked over the device and even X-rayed it - and found it was a mosquito trap. Weed and pest officers routinely put out the traps to check for mosquitoes that carry the West Nile virus.
