You have to look carefully, but be assured, this is part of a belt holding up the guy's pants and isn't something scary poking out his pants.

Successful bid to kiss 11 cobras

Snakes occasionally hit the headlines, and last October was a busy and tragic time for cobras. In Pattaya, Thailand, a whacky gent made a successful bid to kiss 11 cobras consecutively. Mad. His lips were wrapped around more venomous snakes than any person in history. What a way to get into the Guinness Book of Records. Madder still, he is the most prolific serpent-kissing human who ever lived to tell the tale, and then went back to work - as a snake charmer.

Burn, baby cobras, burn

So a big hiss for Mr Chaibuddee, but a pat on the back for the poor Pennsylvanian student who used to rear baby cobras to finance his $25000 school bills. All had been going well with his reptilian enterprise, until one fateful day his house burnt down. He escaped unharmed, but the fire men found a basement full of fried snake skins. $30,000 charred to a crisp, and the payroll for his education gone up in smoke.