QUIRKY WORLD ... A daily look at some of the world’s stranger stories

Off the hook

ENGLAND: A father was nearly castrated when he caught his testicles on a hook as he slipped off the back of his boat.

Pete Lovett, 48, of Leicestershire, was in danger of death after he tried to “scooch his bum” over steel brackets while on a family trip on his 32ft sports boat in Stanswood Bay, Hampshire.

He was airlifted to hospital in Southampton where surgeons managed to treat his injuries.

Lovett, a roofer, told the Leicester Mercury: “When I fell into the sea I felt between my legs and realised there was nothing there.

“I had to scoop them up in one hand and drag myself back on to the boat.”

He is now raising £10,000 for the Hamble Lifeboat through his Pete’s Plums appeal.

Paxman beard fear

ENGLAND: Newsnight presenter Jeremy Paxman has laughed off the fuss caused by his beard — saying that he may keep it.

The broadcaster’s appearance raised eyebrows when he fronted the BBC2 current affairs show with a crop of noticeable new facial hair.

Paxman, 63, said many at the BBC are pogonophobic — have a fear of beards — but that it was up to him whether he would revert to his usual appearance or not.

“I have grown a beard for the last few summers, and suddenly wondered whether I really needed to shave it off to present Newsnight. Unless you’re lucky enough to be Uncle Albert on Only Fools And Horses, Demis Roussos or Abu Hamza, the BBC is generally as pogonophobic as the late-lamented Albanian dictator Enver Hoxha.”

Hospital drug seizure

RUSSIA: A surgeon has been arrested for taking a five-gram bag of heroin he found in a patient’s stomach.

“The doctor was intoxicated at the time of detention,” police for the Siberian region of Krasnoyarsk said in a statement yesterday, adding he faced up to 15 years in prison for theft and possession.

The doctor, who was not named, refused to answer questions without a lawyer, the police said.

It was not clear whether the patient had been arrested.

Under the hammer

ENGLAND: Imagine you had £10,000 to spare… you could use it to bid for a rare jacket that once belonged to Beatles legend John Lennon.

Dating from the late 1960s, the teal blue jacket, owned and worn by the influential musician, is to be sold at auction.

It is estimated to fetch between £8,000-£12,000 (e9,300-e14,000) in the sale at Hansons Auctioneers in Derbyshire.

It was once the property of Jo Jo Johns, personal assistant to the Beatles, who worked at the group’s offices at 3 Savile Row in central London from 1968 to 1975.

In the early 1970s she gave the jacket to her friend, Anthony Goddard, in Leicestershire.

Mid-air landing

MOROCCO: An airline passenger has given birth to a baby boy in mid-air.

The 39-year-old woman went into labour shortly after take-off from Casablanca in Morocco.

The flight , to Bologna in Italy, was diverted to Barcelona in Spain and the baby was born just before landing.

Crew members and a midwife, who happened to be on the plane, helped with the delivery.

Mother and child were taken to hospital in Barcelona and are in good health.

Private road for hikers

USA: Maintenance workers had to build a temporary road to allow 65 hikers strandedin the US state of Washington to go home.

The original road was washed away in a storm, dumping truckloads of gravel into a culvert.

The road, about 160km from Seattle, will remain closed until a permanent fix can be constructed.