Experts reveal the safest place to hide in a global pandemic

Australia would be the safest place to go if the planet faced an apocalyptic pandemic, experts have concluded. The authors of the study in Risk Analysis Journal say they chose the country because it has so much wide-open space and is rich in resources. “If a population of agriculturally and industrially flourishing humans and resources could be partitioned from those afflicted by the disaster, then prospects for recovery post-catastrophe would be optimised,” they say.

Teen had 20-inch hairball in her stomach

Surgeons removed a 20-inch hairball weighing 4.4lbs from a teenager’s stomach. The monstrosity was discovered after an unnamed 19-year-old was admitted to hospital in southern Russia with severe stomach pains. A surgeon said: “Things like that can begin with an apparently innocent habit of chewing on your own hair.”

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Marine drinks cocktail made from his toe

A former Marine has become the first person to drink a cocktail made from his own amputated toe. Nick Griffiths, from Bolton, lost the toe to frostbite during a race in Yukon. After losing three toes during an extreme 300-mile long winter marathon, he returned to Yukon to take the first drink containing one of his own mummified toes.

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