36MMM breasts scoop world record

Who says porn stars lack amb­ition? Maxi Mounds has made a huge name for herself – by having the largest breast implants in the world.

Her 36MMM bust – each weighing 9kg (20lbs) – finally mawde it into the record books years after she learned there was a category for natural breasts.

'I contacted Guinness World Records and asked if they had a category for implants, but they said no, so I let it go,' she said.'Then they asked me if I was interested as they were creating a category. Eventually they told me I won.' Ms Mounds – not her real name – became a lap dancer in Florida in the 1990s.It was then the one-time ballet dancer and horse rider decided to enhance her figure.

had the old-style silicone imp­lants,' she explained. 'But then came all the scare stories, so I had them replaced with overfilled saline.'

But her chest began to sag, so she had tubes put in her armpits so she could be topped up.

In 2000, she had her implants ­removed and the pockets filled with plastic string – a procedure which has been banned. A solution was injected to make the breasts produce fluid and 'inflate' – but they kept on growing.

She doesn't have a fella now: 'It takes a very special type of person to be with someone who looks like me because of the reactions I get from people whenever I'm out in public.

'I've seen some pretty funny things happen. Men walking into things and getting slapped by their girlfriends because they were staring so hard.'

Woman who lived inside an iron lung for 60 years killed because of a power cut

A woman who defied medical odds and spent her life living in an iron lung died after a power cut shut down the machine helping her breathe.

Dianne Odell, 61, had been confined to the 7ft-long metal tube since contracting polio when she was three.

Her home near Memphis, Tennessee, suffered a lengthy power failure and relatives were unable to start a back-up generator।

Brother-in law Will Beyer said: ''We did everything we could do but we couldn't keep her breathing.

''Dianne had got a lot weaker over the past several months and she just didn't have the strength to keep going.''

Ms Odell was diagnosed with "bulbo-spinal" polio several years before a vaccine was discovered that stopped the spread of the crippling disease affecting children.

Despite being confined inside the iron lung, she managed to get a high school diploma, take courses at a college and write a book.

Iron lungs - or negative pressure ventilators - were first used in the 1920s.

They work by producing pressure on the lungs that causes them to expand and contract so that patients can breathe.

Odell's iron lung, similar to those used during the US polio epidemics that peaked in the 1950s, was a cylindrical chamber with a seal at the neck.

She lay on her back with only her head exposed and made eye contact with visitors through an angled mirror.

Odell, who was cared for by her parents and other family members, operated a television set with a small blow tube and wrote on a voice-activated computer.

Authorities said the electrical failure had been caused by a tree falling on a power line.

This round's on me, lads

We're not saying that the years of dedication, intensive training and hard work that must have gone into this woman's skills amount to nothing more than a good pub trick. But she certainly would be useful to have around in a crowded bar.