Chinese police were held in a hour-long stand-off with a suspected suicide bomber only to find the man was armed with sausages. Police believed that the straps and bulky items around Sing He's waist were dynamite and detonators.

Mr He, 23, threatened to blow up a restaurant and its customers in Benxi, northern China, unless the staff handed over the contents of the till. But a specialist bomb unit called to the scene quickly determined that the device was assembled with pork products.

"When we saw what he had round his waist we couldn't help laughing. Some of the sausages still had the wrappers on them," said one bomb squad officer. "It must have been terrifying for the customers but those things would only have gone off if you'd kept them past their sell by date."

A man who is obsessed with crisps, eating a different flavour for breakfast, lunch and dinner, has changed his name by deed poll - to Mr Monster Munch. Chris Hunt, a plumber, starts the day with packet of pickled onion Monster Munch, has a roast beef Monster Munch sandwich for lunch and a Flamin' Hot flavour bag for dinner. By the look of him you would think he has quite a balanced diet but clearly not.

Mr Munch - or Monster to his pals - said: ''I just can't get enough of them. I love all the flavours, but admit roast beef is a particular favourite. I used to just eat three bags of roast beef a day, but I decided I needed a bit of variety in my life, so now I vary the flavours between breakfast, lunch and dinner." Wow variety really is the Monster Munch Flamin' hot spice of life.

Read on to find out how this genius of the culinary world devises new ways to eat his favourite snack.