Blind man sticks to his (big collection of) guns

A court in New Jersey is to decide if a blind man should be allowed to keep his collection of guns.

Lawyers for Steven Hopler are arguing that he should be given a permit for 14 handguns kept in his home.

The case was brought after Mr Hopler accidentally shot himself in the leg in October 2008.

The court was told that he had since taken a National Rifle Association safety course and also undergone alcohol evaluation.

Web deal is no piece of cake

After deciding to promote their business by offering a voucher through the discount deals website Groupon, a small bakery in England found themselves swamped with orders for 102,000 cupcakes.

The Need A Cake Bakery offered customers a box of 12 cupcakes for £6.50 (Dh37) compared with the regular price of £27 (Dh154). The bakery then received 8,500 orders, compared with its normal production level of 100 a month.

Mrs Rachel Brown, the owner of Need A Cake, has now been forced to bring in agency staff, which she says will more than eat away the benefits of selling the cupcakes.

Cheapest car has makeover

A new more luxurious model of the world's cheapest car is to be built in an attempt to halt falling demand. The new model of the Indian-made Tata Nano will feature extra colours and a more luxurious interior, with door handles, air conditioning, wing mirrors on both sides and a cup holder. The car's engine is also be increased from 35 to 38 horsepower.

The car was launched in 2009, with a showroom price of 100,000 rupees (Dh7,045). Sales are reported to have fallen by 85 per cent in the past year.

All this luxury comes at a price. The new Tata Nano LX will cost Dh13,800.

A win ... after 20 years

The world's worst international football team has just recorded its first victory. American Samoa beat rivals Tonga 2-1 after suffering 30 successive defeats over the past two decades.

The island nation, a US protectorate, was joint bottom of the Fifa world rankings, with San Marino. The result lifts them to fifth from bottom.

Reports said that the islanders celebrated the victory as if they had won a major championship, with the coach, Thomas Rongen, calling it "part of soccer history".

Ten years ago, American Samoa lost 0-31 to Australia, the heaviest defeat in the history of international football.

4.74 degrees of separation

According to a study by an Italian university, users of Facebook are no more than 4.74 degrees of separation from each other.

The Università degli Studi di Milano was testing the commonly held thesis that a chain of no more than six people will link anyone in the world - the so-called six degrees of separation.

In fact, it found the 800 million users of the social networking site were much closer. Two years ago, the difference was 5.28 degrees of separation. Within the user's country, this drops to as low as three.

Facebook claims its users represent roughly 10 per cent of the world's population with 68 billion virtual friendships.

jlangton@thenational.ae