ITV fined £1,600 for animal cruelty over I’m a Celebrity rat stunt
ITV fined £1,600 for animal cruelty over I’m a Celebrity rat stunt
ITV has been fined £1,660 for animal cruelty over an I’m a Celebrity Get Me Of Here stunt which saw to contestants kill and eat a rat.
By Aislinn Laing
Published: 7:49AM GMT 08 Feb 2010
Gino D’Acampo and Stuart Manning from I’m A Celebrity Photo: ITV
The stunt was performed by last year’s winner television chef Gino D’Acampo and Hollyoaks actor Stuart Manning after they were sent into ”exile” for part of the series.
They were given meagre rations of rice and beans, so they caught, killed and cooked a rat to give them "more protein".
D’Acampo, 33, said in the show’s video diary room the Bush Telegraph: ”I saw one of these rats running around. I got a knife, I got its throat, I picked it up.”
A court in Sydney heard that the rat was initially stabbed with a knife but took a minute and a half to die and suffered unnecessary pain in the process.
D’Acampo and Manning were originally charged with animal cruelty themselves.
But the charges were dropped after ITV admitted that production staff gave them permission to take the rat’s life.
The court heard that the producers only considered whether eating the animal would make them ill, rather than whether they were breaking any laws.
The company was fined $3000, around £1,660 pounds, and ordered to pay $2,500 (£1,390) in costs.
An ITV spokesman said it had apologised for the mistake which led to the incident.
"The production was unaware that killing a rat could be an offence, criminal or otherwise, in New South Wales, and accepts that further enquiries should have been made," he said.
"This was an oversight, and we have since thoroughly reviewed our procedures, and are putting in place a comprehensive training programme to ensure that this does not happen in future series."
ITV fined £1,600 for animal cruelty over I’m a Celebrity rat stunt – Telegraph
From the http://www.telegraph.co.uk
Old plate turns out to be rare £100,000 Royal service piece
Old plate turns out to be rare £100,000 Royal service piece
A woman who took an old plate to the Antiques Roadshow in a Tesco carrier bag discovered it was worth £100,000.
By Richard Savill
Published: 1:42PM GMT 08 Feb 2010
Wendy Jones with the plate Photo: BNPS
For years, the antique had been on a rickety support on a sideboard of Wendy Jones’s home without anyone suspecting it was of such high value.
Mrs Jones only took it to the show because her husband was taking some
books.
But she was startled when the 22-inch oval-shaped plate turned out to be the most valuable to have appeared on the BBC programme in its 30-year history.
The plate was commissioned by the Prussian East India Company for King Frederick II, who set up the company in 1750.
It was made from hard paste porcelain and decorated with the alms of the Hohenzollern family, the order of the black eagle, and the Maltese Cross.
The plate was made between 1750 and 1755, and there are pieces of the service in museums across the world.
Mrs Jones said: “The plate actually belongs to my son because he was left it by his grandmother.
“He didn’t have room for it in his London home so I had it.
“One day it fell off the stand and crashed onto the sideboard but luckily it wasn’t damaged.”
As she left the house to go to the show in Aberglasney, Wales, she grabbed the plate and put it in a single Tesco’s carrier bag. They can easily split,” she said.
“When I heard how much it might be worth I was shocked.
“On the way to the show the plate was on the back seat of the car, but on the way home I kept hold of it all the way.”
She added: “We are not sure where the plate came from but my son’s paternal grandmother did marry into a German family.
“And the plate was made for the King of Prussia, so that’s possibly how it ended up in our family.”
John Axford, from Woolley and Wallis auction house in Salisbury, Wilts, who valued the plate, said: “It is a fantastic piece of a very rare Royal service.”
From the http://www.telegraph.co.uk
Old plate turns out to be rare £100,000 Royal service piece – Telegraph
Man banned from carrying daughter on shoulders in Tesco
Man banned from carrying daughter on shoulders in Tesco
A father was banned from carrying his daughter on his shoulders during a shopping trip to Tesco.
Martin Dunkley: The guard told the 48-year-old taxi driver to take six year-old Natalie down for health and safety reasons. Photo: MASONS
Martin Dunkley was confronted by a security guard when he tried to enter a branch of the store in Cambridge.
The guard told the 45-year-old taxi driver to take six year-old Natalie down for health and safety reasons.
But he refused and decided to shop elsewhere.
A Tesco spokeswoman urged Mr Dunkley to return to the store and talk to the manager about his concerns.
She added: "We take the safety of our staff and customers very seriously. Each store can make these decisions on an individual basis. We have no blanket policy on this issue."
The incident comes after other Tesco stores recently banned customers from wandering around stores wearing pyjamas, then from going barefoot.
Man banned from carrying daughter on shoulders in Tesco – http://www.telegraph.co.uk
Oolong, the rabbit that became an internet hit by balancing things on its head, lives on
Oolong, the rabbit that became an internet hit by balancing things on its head, lives on
A book has been published dedicated to a rabbit who became one of the first cult web stars. The personal blog caught on as word spread about the quirky images and, despite being entirely in Japanese, over 2.5million people visited the site.
Oolong, the rabbit that became an internet hit by balancing things on its head, lives on – Telegraph
Rape victim receives 101 lashes for becoming pregnant
Rape victim receives 101 lashes for becoming pregnant
A 16-year-old girl who was raped in Bangladesh has been given 101 lashes for conceiving during the assault.
By Dean Nelson, South Asia Editor www.telegraph.co.uk
Published: 4:30PM GMT 25 Jan 2010The girl’s father was also fined and warned the family would be branded outcasts from their village if he did not pay.
According to human rights activists, the girl, who was quickly married after the attack, was divorced weeks later after medical tests revealed she was pregnant.
The girl was raped by a 20-year-old villager in Brahmanbaria district in April last year.
Bangladesh’s Daily Star newspaper reported that she was so ashamed following the attack that she did not lodge a complaint.
Her rape emerged after her pregnancy test and Muslim elders in the village issued a fatwa insisting that the girl be kept in isolation until her family agreed to corporal punishment.
Her rapist was pardoned by the elders. She told the newspaper the rapist had "spoiled" her life.
"I want justice," she said.
Rape victim receives 101 lashes for becoming pregnant – Telegraph
Doomsday clock: countdown to nuclear destruction shifted back one minute
Doomsday clock: countdown to nuclear destruction shifted back one minute
The Doomsday Clock, a timepiece measuring how close humanity is to nuclear destruction, has shifted back one minute.
Published: 7:00AM GMT 15 Jan 2010
Anti-nuclear campaigners welcomed forecasts by the symbolic clock, created by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists in 1947, that the current threat had lessened.
The gimmick was built in New York two years after the US dropped the first atom bombs on Japan in World War Two and was first set at seven minutes to midnight.
In 2007 it was wound on to five minutes to midnight, to reflect the failure to solve problems posed by nuclear weapons.
The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) said the hands on the clock were now being moved back to six minutes to midnight.
Kate Hudson, from CND, said: ”This shift reflects the significant improvement since the end of the Bush era. Both Presidents Obama and Medvedev are committed to nuclear abolition and have put the issue firmly at the centre of the international political agenda.
”From the aggressive escalation of the Bush years we have seen a significant change in the US administration’s approach to nuclear weapons. Now almost all states are pushing in a more sane direction.
”The progress towards major US-Russian reductions in warheads is creating an improved international climate ahead of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference in May – but now we need to translate aspirations into results."
Doomsday clock: countdown to nuclear destruction shifted back one minute – Telegraph
Snow stories: postman defies cold snap to deliver mail in shorts -
Snow stories: postman defies cold snap to deliver mail in shorts
A postman is refusing to let the freezing conditions change his daily routine of delivering the mail dressed in shorts.
Jason Urwin has vowed not to change the habit despite the severe weather Photo: NEWSTEAM
Jason Urwin, 38, has worn his uniform of blue shorts every day since he started work nearly four years ago.
He has vowed not to change the habit despite the severe weather, and was spotted trudging through the snow with bare legs on his rounds yesterday.
Mr Urwin, of Telford, Shropshire, said: "When I first started with the Royal Mail I did think it was cold and saw other postmen in shorts and thought what are they doing.
"But one year the shorts stayed on and then I just found it was my fingertips that got cold.
"I do get a lot of reaction from people asking are you not cold or are your knees knocking together, especially when it’s frosty or snowing."
Mr Urwin braved the arctic temperatures for four hours as he delivered to around 500 houses and businesses on his five mile round.
One of his customers, Dianna Young, 38, said: "It’s just weird in snow and ice seeing him in his shorts and he has been coming around for quite some years and I have never seen him in anything else.
"One day recently it was very frosty out and I saw him again in his shorts and it made me chuckle because he had every inch of him covered except for his eyes and his legs."
Couple taped up tortoises to smuggle into Britain.
Couple taped up tortoises to smuggle into Britain
A couple kept seven wild tortoises in a hotel room while holidaying on a Greek island then tried to smuggle them into the UK, a court heard today.
A British couple tried to smuggle seven wild tortoises into the UK Photo: Eddie Mitchell
Herpetologist Michael Mates and his partner Carol Wormley, both 42 and from Walthamstow, east London, returned from Corfu with the animals hidden in luggage, magistrates in Harlow, Essex, were told.
Both were ordered to carry out unpaid work and banned from keeping reptiles for 10 years after admitting breaking laws designed to protect wildlife.
Prosecutor Angela Hughes said the Hermann’s Tortoises had been taken from their natural habitat in Corfu then packed in bags and suitcases. She said one was taped to stop it moving around.
Miss Hughes said the couple kept the creatures in a hotel room before taking them on to a plane and flying to Stansted.
She told the court that both were arrested when they landed at the airport in July.
Magistrates were told that Gates was a herpetologist who had a collection of reptiles.
Jeremy Sirrell, for Gates, said his client had been trying to rescue the tortoises after seeing them treated cruelly and had not intended to sell them.
Mr Sirrell said while on holiday Gates had picked up tortoises he saw being kicked around by boys, then bought more from a ”woman selling flowers”.
He said Gates had been ‘’stupid” by deciding to bring the tortoises home instead of going through proper channels.
David Dadds, for Wormley, said his client had ”gone along” with Gates’ wishes and had not understood that what she was doing was wrong.
Gates, who worked as a driver, admitted causing unnecessary suffering, failing to ensure animals’ needs were met and transporting live animals taken from the wild. He was ordered to carrying out 150 hours of unpaid work. Wormley, who worked in the retail industry, admitted failing to ensure animals’ needs were met and transporting live animals taken from the wild. She was ordered to carry out 80 hours of unpaid work.
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Armed Santa Claus robs US bank
Armed Santa Claus robs US bank
A US bank has been held up by an armed man dressed as a Santa Claus.
Santa threatened to come back and ‘kill everyone’. Photo: ENTERPRISE NEWS AND PICTURES
According to Metropolitan Nashville Police, a man wearing a Santa Claus suit – including hat, beard and moustache and dark sunglasses – robbed a SunTrust Bank, demanding money from a member of staff at gunpoint.
After the teller handed over the cash, the man fled in a grey car.
According to witnesses, the bank clerk had asked the robber to remove his sunglasses but he refused, reached into his sack and pulled out his gun.
He demanded money and told staff if they put dye bombs with the cash he would come back and "kill everyone".
He stashed the money in his sack and fled, telling staff and customers he needed the cash because "Santa needed to pay his elves".
Police have refused to reveal how much money was taken by the suspect, who is described as white, with brown hair and about six feet tall.
A police spokeswoman said it was the first time a Santa suit has been used to pull off a robbery in the area in recent years.
The clothing of choice is usually sweatshirts and sunglasses or a Halloween mask, she added.
It is not unheard of for robbers to wear Santa suits as a disguise.
In the most notorious case, a gang including a man dressed as Santa shot and killed six people and injured several others in a robbery in Cisco, Texas, on December 23, 1927.
Story by www.telegraph.co.uk
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