News of the weird

Load of cobras: Boonreung Buachan, a 27-year-old farmer from Thailand, has emerged unharmed from a week locked in a small glass-walled room in a Bangkok shopping centre with 100 cobras and 10 poisonous centipedes. He was not paid for his efforts, and occasionally complained about the coolness of the air-conditioning. He normally shares his home with 60 or 70 snakes and has been bitten only once.

Till legislation us do part: Legislators in Vietnam are debating a proposal that would outlaw marriages between same-sex couples or those involving anyone infected with HIV. The proposal follows Vietnam's first same-sex wedding last month.

Pissed as a rat: Scientists at the Inserm national research institute in Dijon, France, are investigating the potential of a chemical called resveratrol to ward off heart attacks. A key goal of the study, according to a Reuters report, is to determine the optimal levels of the drug. Since resveratrol occurs in grape skins, the current study involves about 100 white rats sipping their way through a daily dose of burgundy.