iON The World

Remember when Lady Kitty Spencer, Princess Diana’s 17-year-old niece, booked a taxi to take her to watch a Chelsea game at Stamford Bridge, and ended up in Stamford Bridge, Yorkshire, rather a long way from its namesake stadium off the Fulham Road?

Samantha Lazzaris, 33 , from Bristol, recently found herself in a similar situation when a travel agent mixed up her fl ights and sent her not to Costa Rica’s San Jose, as was intended, but Puerto Rico’s San Juan. The holidaymaker only found out when a taxi driver informed her that he could not take her to her pre-booked hotel as she was in the wrong country. Ouch. Anyone for a free fi ve star hotel room in Manhattan? A London couple have secured themselves just that - at one small cost: their privacy. Katherine Lewis and Duncan Malcolm are spending their holiday in a ground floor room in the Roger Smith hotel with floor-to-ceiling windows onto the street, which must be kept open between 4:30 pm and 7:30 pm. The bathroom, however, is not visible to the public. Sorry everyone.

Travellers during the Illinois rush hour were in for a shock when electronic road signs warned of road closures due to ‘Nazi Zombies’ and ‘Raptors.’ Hackers managed to change road signs across the state, as well as in Texas and Indiana. The signs have since been changed back to prevent drivers from becoming distressed.

A French thief with a cunning plan to drill his away into the safe and deposit room of the Banque Populaire in Marseilles was scuppered when he found that he’d drilled his way into the lavatory. The 21-year-old Belgian was caught after triggering alarms, and duly arrested in the toilet cubicle.

Ravi Bhatia, a contestant on the Indian reality/ ordeal show Dadagiri, is to sue the programme’s producers after a heated exchange with one of the presenters, ‘Esha the Goddess,’ in which she slapped him on the face and he impulsively slapped her back. The studio crew then all piled in and beat Ravi black and blue. Footage of the incident leaked onto YouTube, and Ravi’s plaintive wails of, “HOW CAN SHE SLAP!” became an instant internet meme, spawning commemorative T-shirts and the inevitable techno remix.

Switzerland is still recovering from an infl ux of naked hikers. The pastime, popular with Germans, has outraged the canton of Appenzellen-Innerrhoden, which only gave women the vote in 1990. In a move to protect the children from such ‘immoral habits’ the hikers will now face an on-the-spot fine of 200 Swiss Francs.

The Hindu Nationalist Movement in India are busy putting the finishing touches to a soft drink made of cow urine. ‘Gau Jal’ or ‘Cow Water’ will go on sale at the end of the year. Don’t all jump at once!