From Robbie Williams's crusade against roundabouts to fish-flavoured mineral water for cats... Your weekly roundup of offbeat stories from around the world.

- Let me protest you -

British pop star Robbie Williams is hiring himself out as a "paid celebrity protester".

"I will protest anything," he said, promising "competitive rates. Cheaper than Justin Timberlake, Bruno Mars and way cheaper than Bieber".

The former Take That singer limbered up for his new calling by staging a one-man protest against Swiss roundabouts.

"No more roundabouts!" he shouted in a video he took of himself holding up a placard on one near his home in Gstaad as bemused motorists drove by.

"Someone had to say it. I just want to be on the right side of history," he wrote on his Instagram feed, which has been getting quirkier and quirkier of late.

Williams has been out practising protesting in the alpine meadows since, filming himself skipping towards the camera in a vest and flat cap with cardboard placards urging people not to be nasty and as well as one saying, "Yes, you are totally an alcoholic."

- Make it snappy -

A Chinese city is scrambling to catch up to 70 crocodiles that escaped from a farm as floods hit Maoming in Guangdong province after a typhoon.

Some have been caught or shot by emergency teams scouring flooded fields, but it is unclear how many of the runaway reptiles -- who were being bred for their skin and meat -- are still on the loose.

Social media Weibo was abuzz with rumours and sightings of the crocs. "Don't worry, they'll leave you alone once they've eaten you," one user joked.

- Famous fails -

Finally a museum dedicated to people we can all identify with -- losers. The Museum of Failure is opening its doors in Washington DC, with a whole section given over to the misfiring business ventures of one Donald Trump, including Trump Steaks, the Trump Shuttle and the "I'm Back and You're Fired! Trump, the Game".

Beyond the "Make America Fail Again" section, there are such classic flops as Google Glasses and Betamax video cassettes as well as spray-on condoms, low-fat Pringle crisps that were linked to "anal leakage", and appetite suppressant chocolates called AYDS.

"We learn a lot from failure," said exhibition organiser Johanna Guttmann, insisting that "it's part of a journey on our path to innovation and success."

Let's hope the brains behind fish-flavoured mineral water for cats, the Starbucks coffee with olive oil and the Chinese start-up Shared Girlfriend, which rented out sex dolls, went on to even greater glory.

- Hamster ahoy -

Reza Baluchi surely deserves a special place in the museum. The Iranian-born adventurer's latest attempt to cross the Atlantic in a homemade "hamster wheel" just as Hurricane Franklin was about to hit ended dramatically when he was arrested by the US Coastguard 70 miles off the coast of Georgia.

Baluchi, a marathon runner who has previously tried to reach Bermuda in an inflatable bubble and Puerto Rico in his self-propelled "hydro pod", had hoped to run the 6,000 kilometres (3,700 miles) to London inside the wheel.

He first refused to be rescued, threatening to blow himself up, before admitting that there was no bomb.

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