Paris (France) (AFP) – From "seal silly season" to why Nigerians are obsessed with breaking records... Your weekly roundup of offbeat stories from around the world:

Issued on: 02/10/2026 - 17:14

'Nigerians don't come last'

Another triumph for Nigeria's growing army of record breakers, after the man who climbed 150 steps on a ladder balancing a football on his head, and the guy who spun a plate on his finger for two whole hours.

Dancer Benjamin Daniel Gabriel boogied for more than a week to shimmy his way to Guinness World Records glory.

He has become the latest national hero in a country that has become obsessed with over-the-top endurance stunts.

Chef Hilda Baci started the craze in 2023 with the longest cooking marathon, making jollof rice and other local delicacies for 93 hours and 11 minutes.

"Nigerians don't come last in anything," Tunde Onakoya, who holds the record for the longest chess marathon, told AFP as Gabriel danced in the background.

"We like to test ourselves against the world -- we are capable of all forms of greatness."

Rice work gives Dutch courage

From the land that brought us watery winter tomatoes, comes chewy rice. Those ingenious Dutch have found a way of using their sinking polders to grow sushi rice and possibly make a new form of Dutch courage -- sake.

A pilot paddy between The Hague and Amsterdam has yielded a promising harvest and local restaurants want to serve the rice produced. "It tasted delicious," said Guusje van der Vossen of regenerative nature group Wij Land. "It was a bit chewy, but also great."

Nothing to seal here

Why did the seal cross the road? To get to the train, of course.

New Zealand police came to the rescue of a wandering seal who had crossed a busy road in the capital Wellington and seemed to be making its way to its main railway station.

"The pup appeared grateful for the assistance," said the police, who returned it to the sea, though no one asked the seal.

Its adventures are the latest in a long line of bizarre encounters with the marine mammals during New Zealand's "seal silly season".

Last year another pup waddled up from the sea and into a bar in Richmond on the other side of the Cook Strait. It left without buying a drink, but may have been put off with the owner shouting "Hide the salmon!" when he saw him.

Masseur gets rubbed up

A Slovakian masseur will take on the best cyclists on the planet on Sunday after his country's top riders were forced to pull out of the World Championships.

Vladimir Kovacik, 28, has not raced in a decade since he finished in 32nd place in a time trial back home.

But when the country's top three riders were forced to drop out of the race in Montreal -- because of injuries for two of them and a contractual issue for one -- the team turned to its surprised masseur to keep the Central European country's flag flying.

Slovakia's cycling federation admitted it was "not ideal" but Kovacik putting himself through the wringer would help keep their place among cycling's elite, they said.

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© 2026 AFP

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