Dogs caused 800 insurance claims last year
And other stories from the stranger side of life

Dogs were behind more than 800 insurance claims in Britain last year, including an incident where a pooch flooded a kitchen by turning on a tap, reported The Times. Whiskey, a cross between a Labrador Retriever and Great Dane, caused £4,000 of damage after he turned on the tap while his owners were briefly out of the house. Another case included in a report by the insurance provider Aviva involved a dog knocking over a stepladder and spilling a two-litre pot of paint down the stairs.
Staffordshire pub bars Vladimir Putin
A British pub made headlines on Wednesday for “barring” Vladimir Putin. Sam Rice, who runs the Loaf and Cheese pub in Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire, told Sky News that what Putin is doing “is just wrong – and people here feel very strongly about it”. The news came a day after it was reported that a pub in Nottingham had placed a photograph of the Russian president in its urinals.
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‘Extinct’ bat spotted in Rwanda
A species of bat not sighted in 40 years was spotted in Rwanda, reported The Guardian. Conservationists had feared the Hill’s horseshoe bat had become extinct. Rediscovering the lost species “was incredible”, said Jon Flanders, the director of Bat Conservation International. He added: “Now our real work begins to figure out how to protect this species long into the future.”
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