“Greg da Silva is on edge after having his world record-breaking hat, which features 1,000 eggs, stolen while in Germany. Mr Da Silva was suffering from heatstroke while in the city of Halle when an egg snatcher made off with the hardboiled hat. After he had recovered from his heat stroke, Mr Da Silva went to retrieve the hat from the hospital, but he was left scrambled when he found it was missing. ‘It was really hot and humid and I suddenly felt weak,’ explained Mr Da Silva, who is from Benin in West Africa. ‘The next thing I knew I was waking up after a day in a coma but without my hat. ‘I must get it back because it is my whole way of life but I know Germans are very honest people and I am sure someone will hand it in.’ Mr Da Silva is based in Cape Town, South Africa and has been performing there for years.” w/ photo

“Gardener, John Pearson, has claimed a world record by growing a leek weighing 20lb 5oz at a horticultural show in Stanley, Co Durham. Mr Pearson proudly showed off the giant vegetable at the event. ‘I’m very pleased to have set a new record at what is a beautiful show,’ the Sunderland man said. The retired groundsman is a record veteran having already registered the biggest pair and trio of leeks back in 2002. The 63-year-old remained humble and said he owed his success to previous winner John Soulsby, who had given him good seeds to use. ‘I’m proud to have the world record, but anyone could grow a leek like this – if they had the right pips,’ he said. Mr Pearson checks the weight of his leeks by using a specially adapted machine that is normally used to weigh suitcases.” w/ photos

“Lovestruck Zhu Lei hoped to get a ring on his finger but ended up with a bucket of water in his face when an elaborate balcony proposal went wrong. Mr Zhu planned a balcony proposal by crane but after getting a drenching from a woman at the window, it was less Romeo and Juliet – and more like Mr Bean. Mr Zhu rented the crane to lift him to his girlfriend Na Na’s sixth-floor window in Fuyang in eastern China. But when he reached the window and said ‘Na Na, I love you. Please marry me’, he got a basin of water chucked over hm from a woman inside. The sodden lover had no option but to ask the crane operator to let him down after his very public letdown.” w/ photos

“A St. Louis prison inmate who escaped after fighting through more than a dozen guards using homemade nunchucks was back in custody, police said. Lorenzo Pollard, 31, made the weapon from a bedsheet and and a chair, and used them to battle his way out of the medium security city Workhouse. The daring escape prompted a suspension of Commissioner Gene Stubbefield and a review of past jailbreaks. “I’m frustrated by it,” Police Capt. Sam Dotson, the city’s operations director, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “The mayor’s frustrated by it. These types of failures… cannot happen.” Pollard made his escape as he was being led by guards to a shower area. As guards called for backup, Pollard climbed to a second tier of jail cells, swinging the nunchucks as a dozen guards tried to subdue him, according to the paper. He next used the nunchucks to smash through a glass wall and then scaled two razor-wire fences. Pollard, who was in jail on charges of theft, trespassing, property damage and resisting arrest, escaped despite a swarm of police dogs and a search helicopter. But hours later, police said he was back in custody after being captured without incident on a city street.” w/ photo

“A 2ft tall American, who was recently named as the world’s shortest living woman by Guinness World Records, is also an all-singing, all-dancing cheerleader. Bridgette Jordan, 22, from Sandoval, Illinois, stands at 2ft 3in tall and is a multiple record holder, as she is also one of the shortest living siblings with her 20-year-old brother Brad. The siblings, who have Majewski osteodysplastic primordial dwarfism type II, both study at Kaskaskia College and live with their parents in Sandoval. Speaking of her record-breaking achievement, Ms Jordan said: ‘It feels awesome. It’s great to be small. I believe that everyone should be confident in themselves.’ Her brother said he hopes his sister’s record and the record they share will go a long way to helping other people realize it’s ‘OK to be different’.” w/ photos + video

“Johannesburg – A 3-week old white rhino calf was trapped for at least eight hours in the fork of a young thorn tree after its mother, named Alpha, was shot by poachers on a game farm in Assen, near Pretoria. The calf blindly ran away from the poachers after one of them slashed it over its head with a panga. The calf ran helter-skelter into a bush a few meters away from where the poachers had shot the cow in her heart and head, and ended up with his head trapped in the V-shaped fork of a young tree. In its desperate attempts to escape the calf had pawed deep grooves in the ground around the tree and had rubbed its neck raw against the trunks – causing his head to swell up. A rhino cannot move backwards. The owner, Neels van Rensburg, said when he arrived at the carcass of the cow, the pitiful bleats of the calf was all one could hear.” w/ photo

“After seeing this morning’s giant vegetable PhotoBlog post, I could hardly wait to see the winning onion. Grower Pete Glazebrook, who already won for the largest marrow (squash), may be able to claim the Guinness World Record for his onion. According to the Guinness website, the heaviest onion is 15 pounds.” w/ photo

“A thousand nude Israelis floated in the Dead Sea for a photo shoot by Spencer Tunick, that well-known flesh-snapper. Mr Tunick is renowned for taking nude pics of people at famous landmarks and has previously photographed across Europe, the US and Australia. His latest endeavour was intended to draw attention to the plight of the Red Sea, the water level of which is dropping nearly four feet a year. The photographer was able to convince a thousand people to strip down to nothing and then float on the famously salty lake. The group, aged from 18 to 77 years old, then posed for a series of shots.” w/ photos

“If life imitated art, it would be a simple matter to follow the dotted line and snip a 200-foot dam near Ojai off the face of the earth. For years, an alliance of environmentalists, fishermen, surfers and officials from every level of government has called for demolishing the obsolete structure. Now, an anonymous band of artists has weighed in, apparently rappelling down the dam’s face to paint a huge pair of scissors and a long dotted line. The carefully planned work popped up last week and is, no doubt, Ventura County’s most environmentally correct graffiti by a dam site. “Everyone I’ve talked to has really enjoyed it,” said Jeff Pratt, Ventura County’s public works director. “It sends a good message.” That message? Tear the thing down already.” w/ photo

“An Iowa couple have discovered an eerie presence in their pear tree, just in time for the approaching Halloween season. Des Moines television station KCCI reports that Phil and JaNelle Lovely recently discovered a pumpkin that appears to be growing in the tree at their Greenfield home, 50 miles southwest of Des Moines. They say they have no idea how the pumpkin ended up in their tree, but it appears to be the work of Mother Nature. A nearby garden vine climbed the tree, giving the now-green pumpkin the appearance of having sprouted from one the tree’s branches.” w/ photo