HOT OVERALLS WRECK TAKEAWAY: A blaze which wrecked a Chinese takeaway had an unsual cause, the Wolverhampton Express and Star reported.

Fire officers told the paper it was caused by spontaneous combustion in a pair of grease-stained overalls.

The overalls had been washed, then dried in a tumble dryer before being put away in a box, still warm. The heat combined with grease remaining on the overalls and resulted in spontaneous combustion.

SEX TOY SPARKS BOMB ALERT: Police swooped on a suspect package which was “busily humming along the road” in Rochester, local paper Medway Today reported.

The road was shut off because investigating officers feared it might be a bomb. Close examination revealed that the device was a vibrating sex toy.

HE’S GOT THEM SWOONING IN USA: He’s just an ordinary 17-year-old lad in Britain, but in America Peter Nichols is a heartthrob to millions of lovesick girls.

The public schoolboy is the only British boy among 363 male pin-ups who feature in a card collecting game called Boy Crazy which has taken the US by storm.

Peter was spotted by a rep. looking for suitable models when he was in Boston on a school music trip, reported the Manchester Evening News.

BARELY THERE: A daring fashion show in Bath will include a model in a see-through glass bikini.

The Bath Chronicle reported that designer Annette Martin, who will be showing her work at the Bath Fringe Festival on May 6, has had several orders for the skimpy outfit since it was launched at an exhibition in Birmingham.

BECKS FOR MAYOR: Manchester United star David Beckham would be the top choice for Mayor of Nottingham, according to a survey of 11 to 16-year-olds, reported by the Nottingham Evening Post.

Commissioned by the makers of the Hula Hoops snack, the survey of 1,000 youngsters had Ali G as the second most popular choice.

MOGGY SNUBS RESCUERS: A cat is enjoying freedom again after being trapped under debris for three weeks.

Several attempts had been made to free the cat after it was spotted under Armagh’s Battleford Bridge, the Belfast Telegraph reported. Finally, the Royal Ulster Constabulary’s mountain rescue team swung into action. Two team members abseiled 20ft down to the debris and, after an hour, managed to corner the black and white moggy – but it evaded them by leaping into the river.

A police spokesman told the paper “It seems it had been surviving by feeding on a dead sheep that was also lying there.”

SIGNS BLUNDER BY COUNCIL: Red-faced council officials in Peterborough are being forced to take down nine street signs which were put up without planning consent.

The Evening Telegraph reported that planning officials jumped the gun in 1998 when they allowed the authority to install information boards and turrets in the city centre. The local civic society pointed out that the signs needed planning permisison because they were illuminated. Two even prevented closed-circuit TV operators viewing known late-night trouble spots. Now, all nine are being removed.

CITIZEN TO THE RESCUE: A Gloucestershire couple have been reunited with their wedding rings, thanks to their local paper.

Cathy McAlinden and Steve Hayes, both 28, feared that they would have to tie the knot without the rings when the shop that was engraving them closed suddenly because of a landlord-tenant dispute. But shop manager Phil Dunham enlisted The Citizen’s help when he realised he had the jewellery but no address for the couple.

Cathy and Steve got their rings back just in time for Saturday’s ceremony and told the paper: It’s a great relief.”

DOCTOR COURAGE: A retired doctor died after refusing a heart and kidney transplant so that someone younger could have the chance of a better life, the South Wales Evening Post revealed.

Manuel Grimaldi (74), first cousin of Prince Rainier of Monaco, had twice been offered the life-saving op. His widow, Dorothy, said: “It was ‘no’ to both transplants and dialysis treatment. He felt somebody younger had their whole life ahead of them and deserved to go first.”

CLIVE THE CARD IS SO VANE: Football referee Clive Wilkes has had an unusual weathervane built to commemorate the sending-off that set a world record.

It shows a silhouette of him brandishing a red card and stands on the roof of his home in Corse, Gloucestershire.

Clive set the record last November while refereeing a match between Swansea and Darlington. A player who had just gone on as a substitute was sent off for an act of violence before the ref’ had re-started his watch, so the time was recorded as “zero seconds”.

Clive told The Citizen newspaper: “It’s a record that can’t be beaten.”

SADDLE SORE POINT: A road sign has been puzzling cyclists in Lincoln city centre.

It reads: “No cycling at any time except for loading between 4pm and 10am”.

The Lincolnshire Echo featured the sign in a picture story and revealed that, contrary to popular belief, it was correctly worded. Apparently, it was put up to reinforce a ban on cyclists, except when picking up or dropping off packages that could not easily be carried by hand.

HENS UP TO SCRATCH: Battery hens are being taught to search for worms after being rescued from the threat of the dog-food factory.

Animal-lovers Jenny Jenkins and Christine Rawle, of Braunton, North Devon, have taken in hundreds that would otherwise have ended up in the mincer.

Now, the hens have a peaceful retirement in the open air. But they are so used to being fed by a conveyor belt that they cannot feed themselves – so a cockerel is used to show them how to peck the ground for grain and worms.

Jenny told the Western Morning News: “They copy him and it doesn’t take long before they are behaving like normal chickens.”

CLAW, WHAT A WHOPPER: Giant crabs with a clawspan of more than a metre have taken up residence at Blackpool’s Sea Life centre.

The Japanese spider crabs are the first to be seen in Britain and are named after Pokemon characters Churizarl, Squirtle, Bulbasaur, Pikachu and Gengar.

A centre spokesman told The Gazette newspaper: “Fully grown, their clawspan can be almost three metres.”

PHARAOH LINK FOR PAPER: The Huddersfield Daily Examiner has unearthed a local link to excavations among the tombs of the pharaohs in Egypt.

The paper reported that archaeologists excavating an unfinished tomb in the Valley of the Kings had discovered a generator made in 1930 by Yorkshire engineering firm Crompton Parkinson, of Longroyd Bridge.

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