Vodka made from radioactive Chernobyl apples seized
And other stories from the stranger side of life

Vodka made from radioactive apples grown near Chernobyl has been seized by Ukrainian officials. The brand, called Atomik, includes ingredients from the nuclear power plant’s still-radioactive exclusion zone. However, UK drinkers have been denied the chance to consume the heady brew after bottles were blocked during their journey across Europe.
Woman attends her own funeral
A woman lay in a coffin with onlooking friends pretending to cry because she wanted to “celebrate her life” by rehearsing her own funeral. Mayra Alonzo, 59, organised the ceremony in Santiago at the end of last month. She arrived at the funeral in a hearse, lying in a white coffin that she had rented for the day. She described the experience as a “dream come true”.
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Pizza lunch exclusion was discrimination
A woman excluded from weekly team pizza lunches has won a workplace discrimination case and a £23,000 payout. A tribunal ruled that Malgorzata Lewicka was victimised by bosses who did not include her in the informal lunches for other staff. The panel concluded that her exclusion was part of a campaign of victimisation after she had accused a manager of sexual discrimination.
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Chas Newkey-Burden has been part of The Week Digital team for more than a decade and a journalist for 25 years, starting out on the irreverent football weekly 90 Minutes, before moving to lifestyle magazines Loaded and Attitude. He was a columnist for The Big Issue and landed a world exclusive with David Beckham that became the weekly magazine’s bestselling issue. He now writes regularly for The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent, Metro, FourFourTwo and the i new site. He is also the author of a number of non-fiction books.
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