A couple on a 13-hour flight were refunded over £1,000 after being seated next to a farting dog. Gill and Warren Press were travelling from Paris to New Zealand with Singapore Airlines when an emotional support dog started snoring loudly during the first leg of their trip. "I heard this noise – a heavy snorting," Gill told Stuff. "I thought it was my husband’s phone, but we looked down and realised it was the dog breathing. I said, ‘I’m not having this sitting next to us the whole trip." They also claimed the dog wouldn't stop farting during the journey. It was then the couple alerted staff and asked to move, but there were no spaces available. "They couldn’t have the dog out in the aisle because they couldn’t get the trolleys through, so it had to come in further, which meant his head was under my husband’s feet," she continued. "My husband was in shorts and was getting the dog’s saliva goo on his leg." The pair were offered $116 in travel vouchers – which they were unhappy with. They pushed for a refund and have since been given approximately $1,410 which they plan on donating to a charity for guide dogs. A spokesperson for Singapore Airlines said: "Singapore Airlines (SIA) apologises to Mr and Mrs Press for their experience on board their flight from Paris to Singapore. "SIA endeavours to notify customers who may be seated next to an assistance dog prior to boarding. In circumstances where customers seated next to an assistance dog request to be moved, we will assist to re-seat customers within the same cabin if space permits. "In this instance, we were unable to move Mr and Mrs Press within the same cabin as the Premium Economy Class cabin was full. Our crew offered to move Mr and Mrs Press to two empty seats in Economy Class, which they accepted after take-off." Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

Shifting to a healthier diet – and sticking to it – can add almost a decade to life for middle-aged people, a new study finds. The research published earlier this week in the journal Nature Food, assessed the health data of nearly half a million British residents whose eating habits have been documented as part of the UK biobank study. Researchers grouped 467,354 participants based on their eating habits and observed how these changed over time. Participants were grouped as either average and unhealthy eaters, or as people with food intake matching the UK’s Eatwell Guide and those whose diet matched what the researchers called the “longevity diet”. Currently, the UK population has a life expectancy at birth of about 84 years for women and 80 years for men. Adjusting for other contributing factors like smoking, alcohol, and physical activity, the study found that 40-year-old men and women who changed from an unhealthy diet to eating healthier food, and adhered to it, gained almost 9 to 10 years in life expectancy. “Here, using a prospective population-based cohort data from the UK Biobank, we show that sustained dietary change from unhealthy dietary patterns to the Eatwell Guide dietary recommendations is associated with 8.9 and 8.6 years gain in life expectancy for 40-year-old males and females, respectively,” scientists, including those from the University of Bergen in Norway, wrote. “In the same population, sustained dietary change from unhealthy to longevity-associated dietary patterns is associated with 10.8 and 10.4 years gain in life expectancy in males and females, respectively,” they added. Researchers say the longest gains in life expectancy were made by those changing their diets to consume more whole grains, nuts and fruits and less sugar-sweetened beverages and processed meats. Those who initially followed an average diet and later changed to healthier eating habits were found to have smaller life expectancy gains. “The bigger the changes made towards healthier dietary patterns, the larger the expected gains in life expectancy are,” researchers explained. The life expectancy gains also seemed to be lower when the diet change was initiated at older ages, but even these are substantial, scientists say. For instance, they say, even 70-year-olds can manage to extend their life expectancy by 4 or 5 years if they make a sustained diet change. The latest findings point to government actions that could contribute to people’s health improvements in the UK, such as health-oriented food taxes, improving food environments in school and working places, as well as subsidies to reduce the cost of healthy foods. “Such policy measures, informed by the up-to-date estimates on potential gains in life expectancy that we provide in this paper, could guide the deployment of resources to improve healthy eating patterns across the population,” researchers added. Read More Smoking causes 150 cancer cases every single day in UK, study finds Binman shoots first Hollywood film after chat with Mark Wahlberg changed his life ‘I could have gone blind if I hadn’t been able to go private’ ‘I could have gone blind if I hadn’t been able to go private’ Paul Rudd says ‘horrible’ Marvel diet left him drinking sparkling water as ‘reward’ How to celebrate Thanksgiving when you’re not close to your family

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