Hotel guest jailed over negative reviews
And other stories from the stranger side of life

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A hotel guest was arrested on defamation charges after he left a negative review. Sea View Resort, in Thailand, contacted the police after Wesley Barnes wrote what the resort described as “a series of harassment reviews”. Barnes spent two nights in prison, and now faces a potential two-year sentence. TripAdvisor has also placed a warning message on the page of the Thai hotel, said Insider.
Snake on a train in Washington
A train was taken out of service in Washington when a snake was seen on board. The snake was spotted on the floor of the Blue Line Train at Reagan National Airport. Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority does not know how the “slithering strap-hanger” got onto the train, said UPI. “It did not have a farecard and clearly slipped onto the train without tapping in,” said a spokesperson.
Sailor and dog survive two-month ordeal
An Australian sailor and his dog have survived two months in the Pacific Ocean. Tim Shaddock, 51, and his dog Bella left Mexico for French Polynesia in April, but their boat was damaged by a storm several weeks later. The sailor, who ate raw fish and drank rainwater, is “stable and very well”, said a doctor. However, said the BBC, following his ordeal he is “far leaner and sporting an overgrown beard”.
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A free daily digest of the biggest news stories of the day - and the best features from our website
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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