Five things you might have missed last week

1. Turn it down

Army bagpipers were ordered to wear earplugs amid fears of eventual lawsuits from soldiers claiming their hearing has been damaged by excessive noise. Officials also restricted practice to 24 minutes a day outdoors and 15 minutes indoors.

2. Identity loss

When a delivery firm misplaced a package containing her passport, work permit, bank statements, payslips, reference letters, housing contract and her daughter's university acceptance letter, nurse Vivian Mandala felt she had lost her "whole life". She was offered £6.56 compensation.

3. Shake on it

A Michigan man who "anoints" buildings with oil to rid them of demons has been cleared of making three people ill by attempting to "anoint them by handshake". John Ridgeway testified that all three might be possessed, but the jury found he had not harmed them.

4. Small schism

A vicar in the Algarve has set up his own church after disputes with some of his congregation and with the Church of England. Rev Eric Britt had won compensation from the Church over complaints it failed to support him when he was subjected to a local hate campaign.

5. He saw it on TV

When 16-year-old Corey Workman was dragged into a Florida lake by an alligator he found that it can pay to be a couch potato. Remembering a trick he had seen on the Discovery Channel, he poked the animal in the eye - and broke free.

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