A simple vitamin pill could prevent millions from suffering the agony of Alzheimer’s. The tablet, costing as little as 10p a day and made up of three vitamin B supplements, cut brain shrinkage linked to memory loss by up to 500 per cent. Oxford University researchers behind the landmark study said it offered the ‘first [...]
Authorities in more than a dozen European nations have launched a crackdown on an online file-sharing network. Swedish officials said that raids had been undertaken in 14 countries on Tuesday in a major operation that followed two years of investigations by Belgian police. The majority of the police action occurred in Sweden, according to TorrentFreak, a [...]
Wildlife enthusiast Jimmy Hoffman, 50, scours the vegetation around his home in the Costa Brava, Spain, looking for praying mantises. After finding his subjects, Mr Hoffman can spend up to two hours waiting to get the perfect shot. He said: “My favorite picture is of a mantis about to catch a butterfly. Unfortunately for the [...]
The murder of a Italian mayor by suspected mafia gangsters, believed to be the first such killing in 30 years, has been condemned as a “brazen attack on the state” by senior Italian politicians. Police suspect that Angelo Vassallo, 57, was gunned down by the Naples-based Camorra mafia because of his outspoken defence of the [...]
French unions are striking nationwide as lawmakers begin debating President Nicolas Sarkozy’s bill to raise the retirement age. Transport workers began walking off the job last night, and many schools, post offices and government offices will be closed today. Demonstrations are planned in 137 cities. Sarkozy has vowed not to compromise on the key plank [...]
A Lyons stone mason has provoked a row after creating a gargoyle for the city’s cathedral in the image of his Muslim foreman with a sign saying “Allahu Akbar” (God is great) in both Arabic and French. The 12th century Saint-Jean cathedral of Lyons, southeastern France, has hundreds of gargoyles around its roof whose traditional [...]
A scientist in the UK has said that the cockroach could hold the answer to beating new diseases resistant to currently available antibiotics. A researcher at Nottingham University said in a press release on Monday that he has found molecules in the brain and nervous system of cockroaches that kill superbugs. Superbugs have gained notoriety in [...]
The decision, taken on Monday after 12 hours of talks between senior politicians in Chancellor Angela Merkel’s centre-right coalition, means that some of the 17 plants will now be operational until the 2030s. Norbert Roettgen, the environment minister, said after the meeting in Berlin that the lifespans of Germany’s nuclear power stations would be extended by 12 years [...]
Plans by Rome city officials to demolish up to 200 illegal Gypsy camps this week have raised fears by aid workers that thousands of Roma, including women and small children, will be forced on to the streets. In the wake of France’s controversial repatriation of Romanian Gypsies last month, Italian police backed by bulldozers will [...]
Group releases video saying it will not carry out armed actions three years after resuming violent campaign for independence. The armed Basque separatist group ETA today announced a ceasefire, raising hopes of a new peace process with the Spanish government but giving few clues about how that might happen. The announcement was made in a [...]
Thousands of people have attended demonstrations in Paris and other French cities to protest against tough new security measures introduced by the government which they say are being used to target the country’s Roma community. France began clearing large numbers of illegal Roma camps in July, after Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, announced a series [...]
European scientists say they’ve figured out the recipe for water in space: Just add starlight. They made the discovery while examining a dying star that is 500 light-years away from Earth, using an infrared observatory launched by the European Space Agency last year. “This is a good example of how better instruments can change our [...]
While Amanda Knox languishes in an Italian prison after being convicted of a brutal murder, a retired FBI special agent familiar with the case has come forward to say he firmly believes the 23-year-old American college student is innocent. FBI veteran Steve Moore told “Today” that the evidence in Knox’s case was “flawed and manipulated,” [...]
Former prime minister claims in memoir that U2 frontman could have ended up in No 10 if he hadn’t chosen pop over politics. In a memoir filled with profound navel-gazing, political bombshells and a few purple-prose love scenes, Tony Blair has also found time to salute U2′s activist frontman, claiming he “could be … prime minister”. [...]
Portuguese TV presenter among six convicted over child prostitution at Casa Pia state-run orphanages. One of Portugal’s most famous television presenters and a former ambassador were among six men found guilty yesterday of involvement with a paedophile prostitution ring that exploited children from state-run orphanages. The guilty verdicts handed down to TV presenter Carlos Cruz [...]
Thilo Sarrazin, a director on the board of Germany’s Central Bank, who caused a monumental stir by accusing immigrants and Muslims of diluting his country’s intellectual and economic strength, was on Friday sacked from the Bundesbank’s Governing Board. In a book entitled Germany is Destroying Itself, published earlier this week, Mr. Sarrazin repeatedly criticises both Germany’s [...]
Eight iPad tablet computers have replaced traditional menus in the restaurant of Milan’s La Scala theatre, the italia-ru.it web site said on Friday. In the Il Marchesino restaurant, iPads serve as the menu, displaying photos of the dishes, nutritional values, calories and other useful information. If the customer has an allergy to one of the [...]
A Russian businessman accused of being responsible for the death of 156 people in a horrific night club fire last December has been arrested while on the run in Spain. Konstantin Mrykhin is wanted in his native Russia on charges of involuntary manslaughter in connection with a blaze that tore through the Lame Horse night [...]
The ghosts of the “Russian spies” roam the foggy Albion – at least, that is what keeps appearing before the British counterintelligence officers. MI5 officers believe they are on a trail of a “new Anna Chapman” – this is the nickname given by the media to Liberal Democrat Mike Hancock’s legislative aide, 25-year-old Katya Zatuliveter. [...]
Tony Blair, Britain’s former prime minister, said he did not foresee the “nightmare” that unfolded in Iraq and wept for the war’s victims, in memoirs released on Wednesday. The war-time leader repeated his conviction that the 2003 invasion was justified, but said he regretted “with every fibre of my being the loss of those who [...]
A UK man suffered flash burns after he accidentally blew himself up trying to kill a spider. The 28 year-old suffered severe burns after attacking the arachnid with an aerosol can at his home in Clacton in Essex. The man was summoned by his wife to deal with a spider she had seen scuttling behind [...]
The British spy Gareth Williams who was found dead in a holdall in his bath in London had been padlocked into the bag, an inquest has heard. Williams, 31, was found dead in his flat in Pimlico half a mile from MI6 headquarters in Vauxhall, on Monday August 23rd. After colleagues reported him missing, police [...]
When Diana, the ‘People’s Princess’ died, Tony Blair felt a duty to ‘protect the monarchy from itself’. Diana, Princess of Wales, was down to earth, charming and intelligent, but also stubborn and prone to be over-emotional, says Mr Blair. He recalls meeting the Princess at Chequers in July 1997, the month before she died, saying [...]
Mafia kingpins from the former Soviet Union have moved into the French Riviera and are taking over with “quasi-military” precision. Their grip on the region is now so tight that Riviera detectives expect an eastern connection to almost every crime. “Everything from burglary and money laundering to vice is controlled by the Mob from former [...]
Tony Blair uses his new book to expose Gordon Brown as a manipulative figure who lost a winnable election by abandoning the principles of New Labour. The former prime minister’s memoir discloses that a “maddening” Mr Brown effectively blackmailed him while he was in No 10. He suspects the then chancellor of orchestrating the investigation [...]
Spanish activist Carmen Roger of the organization Saharacciones arrives at Los Rodeos airport on the Spanish Canary Island of Tenerife, on August 30, 2010. Spanish activists of the organization Saharacciones, who said they suffered physical abuse at the hands of Moroccan authorities, arrived in Tenerife, after being arrested and later relased by Moroccan police on [...]
Italy’s health minister traveled to Sicily on Monday to apologize to a new mother for an operating room fistfight between two doctors that led to her botched delivery. Laura Salpietro, 30, had to have her uterus removed and her son Antonio suffered heart problems and possible brain damage following his birth Thursday in Messina’s public [...]
An armed man has killed seven people and wounded at least 14 others in Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia. The assailant was believed to be a 50-year-old man, although his identity is unconfirmed. Police said he killed himself after the shooting. “He was alone. He fired at everything that moved during his escape bid, the policemen surrounded him … they [...]
Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has arrived in Italy for a two-day visit that has aroused a controversy over Tripoli’s growing influence on the Italian economy. Gaddafi’s visit, aimed at celebrating the second anniversary of the 2008 Italian-Libyan friendship agreement, began on Sunday, and is his fourth since a 2008 agreement under which Silvio Berlusconi, the [...]
She told the judges she wanted to be as famous as her idol. And after her powerful rendition of I Who Have Nothing on Saturday night, Mary Byrne left the X Factor panel in no doubt that she has the potential to be as popular as Dame Shirley Bassey. Miss Byrne produced a note-perfect version [...]
Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, the French First Lady, has been called a “prostitute” by Iran after she criticized the country’s decision to stone a woman to death. Mrs Bruni-Sarkozy, the wife of Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, was attacked after she signed a petition calling for the release of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, who is accused of cheating [...]
Russian submarines are hunting down British Vanguard boats in a return to Cold War tactics not seen for 25 years, Navy chiefs have warned. A specially upgraded Russian Akula class submarine has been caught trying to record the acoustic signature made by the Vanguard submarines that carry Trident nuclear missiles, according to senior Navy officers. [...]
Tony Blair attempted to prolong his time as prime minister after he was warned that George W Bush’s US administration had “grave doubts” about Gordon Brown’s suitability to follow him into No10, well placed sources have revealed. The White House warnings, which were reiterated by other leading US-based figures, played a key role in Mr [...]
Pensioner René Galinier has become the face of a fierce debate in France over their Roma community and the limits of liberté, égalité and fraternité. When René Galinier pulled the trigger on his old hunting rifle, he said he was acting to defend his home. Two young Eastern European women had broken into his house [...]
A man has been arrested over an alleged betting scam during the current Test match between England and Pakistan. A tabloid newspaper alleged that some members of the Pakistani team were involved in cheating during the Lord’s Test. The News of the World claims it gave £150,000 ($275,000) to a middleman, who promised to arrange [...]
Riot police moved in as English Defence League protesters rained bottles, stones and smoke flares on counter-demonstrators in Bradford, West Yorkshire. Violence broke out shortly before 2pm as chanting EDL supporters began throwing missiles towards Asian youngsters and anti-fascist activists who had been taunting them with shouts of “Nazi scum off our streets.” The EDL [...]
An overseas collector has paid $15,000 for John Lennon’s toilet at an auction in Liverpool. The porcelain ‘lavatory’ was used by the music legend during the three years he lived at Tittenhurst Park, Berkshire, between 1969 and 1972. Lennon gave it to builder John Hancock, telling him “to use it as a plant pot” after [...]
A former Serb soldier wanted on charges of murdering, raping and torturing civilians during Bosnia’s 1992-95 war has been extradited to face trial. Veselin Vlahovic was extradited yesterday by Spain, where he was arrested in March for robbery and assault with a firearm. Vlahovic is known as the Monster of Grbavica, a reference to a [...]
The prehistoric hunter known as Oetzi the Iceman may have been ceremonially buried on a high Alpine pass rather than killed there in a deadly ambush, experts say. Researchers believe they have found evidence which shows that Oetzi, named after the Oetz Valley in which he was found, died lower down the valley, probably violently, [...]
Intelligence officers are investigating whether state secrets were stolen by the killer of a British spy. The MI6 agent, whose body was found in a sports bag in the bath of his flat, was named yesterday as Gareth Williams. He was a cipher and codes specialist on secondment to the Secret Intelligence Service from the [...]
The man, believed to have been working for MI6, had been missing for 10 days. Police were last night investigating the murder of a man whose body was found stuffed in a sports bag in the bath of his London flat. The man, who was in his early 30s, is believed to have worked for [...]
A Greek archeologist has claimed to have unearthed the palace of the legendary Odysseus on the island of Ithaca in the Ionian Sea. Thanasis Papadopulos, who has been carrying out excavations on the Greek hero’s home island for 16 years, said he had discovered the remains of a three-storey palace and a well, which date [...]
The Spanish government paid al-Qaeda terrorists $8 Million to free two Spanish aid workers in North Africa after a nine-month kidnapping ordeal, according to reports. Albert Vilalta, 35 and Roque Pascual, 50 were reunited with their families in Barcelona, early on Tuesday after being freed from the desert camp in Mali, where they had been [...]
Four pounds of radioactive enriched uranium worth more than $10 Million, has been seized by Moldovan authorities from a suspected group of traffickers that included former officials from the interior ministry. Police found 1.8 kilograms (four pounds) of the substance Uranium-238 in a garage in the capital Chisinau where it was under guard and in [...]
Saliva samples taken from 39 relatives of the Nazi leader show he may have had biological links to the “subhuman” races that he tried to exterminate during the Holocaust. A chromosome called Haplogroup E1b1b1 which showed up in their samples is rare in Western Europe and is most commonly found in the Berbers of Morocco, [...]
Two Spanish aid workers held hostage by al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) have returned home. The release on Sunday put an end to a nine-month kidnapping ordeal. Albert Vilalta, 35, and Roque Pascual, 50, were taken hostage by the North African group while on a relief mission through Mauritania in November last year. The two men were [...]
An Iraqi convicted of the 2004 kidnapping and murder of the British aid worker Margaret Hassan escaped from jail nearly a year ago, it was revealed today. Ali Lutfi Jassar, who was serving a life sentence for his part in the killing of Hassan, was reported missing last month. But Iraq’s deputy justice minister, Busho [...]
Several churchmen joined the chorus on Sunday criticizing President Nicolas Sarkozy’s decision to expel dozens of Roma from France, with one priest praying for Sarkozy to be divinely struck by a heart attack. Father Arthur Hervet of the church of St. Martin Esquermes of Lille in northern of France said he was turning to God [...]
One of Spain’s most wanted terror suspects was arrested in Belgium on Saturday, Spanish interior ministry officials said. Luis Maria Zengotitabengoa, an alleged member of the terrorist ETA group, was captured by Belgian police as he checked into a hotel in the city of Ostend. Zengotitabengoa became a wanted man in January when police found [...]
Tourists travelling on a sleeper train from Spain to Italy woke up nearly 200 miles away in Switzerland after French railway staff made a signalling mix-up in Lyon. Holidaymakers expecting an early morning glimpse of the ornate spires of the Duomo, Milan’s landmark cathedral were instead greeted by the skyscrapers of Zurich. Passengers boarded the [...]
A bull turned the tables on spectators at a bullring in Spain, leaping into the stands and injuring at least 30 people. The incident happened yesterday in Tafalla, in the northern region of Navarra, during a contest of recortadores, in which participants attempt to dodge the bull. One animal managed to scale the perimeter fence [...]
Club owners along a select St Tropez beach immortalised by Brigitte Bardot are threatening “strike” action over plans to close down stretches of sand to obey new environmental rules. Pampelonne beach has been a favourite with the world’s jet set ever since the 1950s when Miss Bardot was filmed along its three miles of white [...]
Thousands of Roma people in France are living under the constant threat of eviction after Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, said he would dismantle 300 of their camps by the end of October. Sarkozy outlined a number of controversial measures against Roma and other immigrant communities last month, including revoking their citizenship. By Estelle Youssouffa [...]
French Riviera beaches packed with tourists have been closed for swimming after a suspected shark was spotted circling in the water. The chilling alert was issued yesterday after lifeguards patrolling in a motorboat spotted a creature measuring more than seven feet long. ‘We were taking no chances and issued the swimming ban immediately,’ said Michel [...]
Three newborn babies have been killed in a Romanian maternity ward by an explosion caused by an electrical fault. Eight babies were also severely burned in the explosion following a glitch in the hospital’s air-conditioning system. “It’s very sad. Three babies in the intensive care department at the Giulesti maternity ward (in Bucharest) have died,” [...]
The sons of a man killed after being given ten times the recommended dose of painkiller by a German locum doctor face prosecution for calling him a “killer” and a “charlatan”. Rory and Stuart Gray were arrested in June after heckling Dr Daniel Ubani at a medical conference in Lindau, Germany, that he was addressing. [...]
A German court has released on bail an alleged Israeli spy suspected of links to the killing of a Hamas leader in Dubai in January. Prosecutors in the western city of Cologne told Uri Brodsky on Friday that he would not have to stand trial in Germany and was free to travel wherever he wanted [...]
A resident of Moscow, “BadB” lived the glamorous life, hopping jets to Europe, freely spending money — even as U.S. authorities marked him as one of the world’s “most prolific sellers” of stolen credit card data. French authorities arrested Vladislav Anatolievich Horohorin, 27, at the airport in Nice this weekend. Federal law enforcement authorities said [...]
Cyber criminals have raided the accounts of thousands of British internet bank customers in one of the most sophisticated attacks of its kind. The fraudsters used a malicious computer programme that hides on home computers to steal confidential passwords and account details from at least 3,000 people. The internet security experts M86, who uncovered the [...]
Police in Switzerland said Monday that they had seized a Swedish motorist’s $240,000 sports car after he was caught doing 290 kilometres per hour (180 mph) on a Swiss motorway. Swiss officials were unable to say if it was a record because they do not keep such nationwide data, but it “looks very close to [...]
Prosecutors are to consider whether Crown Princess Victoria and her husband Prince Daniel accepted bribes after a tycoon paid for the couple’s luxury honeymoon. Sweden’s tabloids have reported that Bertil Hult, the founder of language course organizer EF, lent the couple his plane, yacht and house in Colorado for their honeymoon, which they spent in [...]
A Norwegian kayaker who was dragged by his head for 45 yards in the jaws of a polar bear has told how he escaped when his expedition partner shot the animal dead. Sebastian Plur Nilssen was attacked last week as he slept in a two-man tent with Ludvig Fjeld on the arctic archipelago of Svalbard. [...]
A Russian finalist at the World Sauna Championships in Finland died Saturday and the event was suspended, according to the organizers. Both of the events finalists — Russia’s Vladimir Ladyzhensky and Finland’s Timo Kaukonen — were rushed to the hospital after collapsing during the competition, in which contestants are made to endure temperatures of 230 [...]
A British doctor who quit her job in the UK to help civilians in Afghanistan has been murdered by the Taliban, two weeks before she was due to get married. Dr Karen Woo, 36, and nine other volunteers were killed after they delivered medical supplies to the lawless province of Nuristan in the north-east of [...]
President Asif Ali Zardari rounded off a trip to Britain by addressing a political rally Saturday, facing criticism and protesters for touring overseas as floods killed more than 1,500 people in his country. One heckler threw a shoe at Zardari during the event, missing the president, while outside the convention center police cordoned off more [...]
Danish drivers have protested after Copenhagen ruled that large sections of its traffic rules were secret in defiance of rulings that wardens must explain why they have issued parking tickets. Traffic wardens in Denmark’s capital have refused to tell parking offenders what rules they broke. Following numerous complaints from motorists the Danish Broadcasting Corporation requested [...]
An alleged Israeli agent will be extradited to Germany to be tried for spying, the Polish court of appeals press officer told CNN Thursday. The alleged agent “is accused of helping to get false documents for the man who is thought to have killed the Hamas leader in Dubai,” the officer said. The man was [...]
Laura Dekker, 14, began her journey, a sea voyage that is expected to take the next two years, after setting sail in her 38-foot yacht Guppy. “I can be sailing now, and that’s great,” she said. “I am not really afraid. I am very happy.” Over 100 well wishers gathered at the dockside of the [...]
Marine life in the Mediterranean faces the greatest risk of damage and death, the Census of Marine Life shows. “Enclosed seas have the risk that, when you impact it and throw chemicals or other garbage into it, it will not go away so easily as it will from the open ocean,” said Patricia Miloslavich of [...]
The Dutch troop withdrawal from Afghanistan has officially begun, making the Netherlands the first country in NATO’s mission there to leave. The four-year deployment has cost the lives of 24 Dutch soldiers and $1.8 Billion but has garnered praise from Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the NATO secretary-general, who said the Dutch mission was “the benchmark for [...]
Israel’s president has accused the English of being anti-semitic and claimed that MPs pander to Muslim voters. Shimon Peres said England was “deeply pro-Arab … and anti-Israeli”, adding: “They always worked against us.” He added: “There is in England a saying that an anti-Semite is someone who hates the Jews more than is necessary.” His [...]
A UK Army sniper is suing the Ministry of Defence over a “catastrophic error” which put him and his family in danger of being kidnapped by al-Qaeda. Police feared the soldier and his family could face retaliatory attacks by British-based Islamists after it was disclosed to the media that he had shot dead several Taliban [...]
Polish police smashed a pedophile ring, arresting 17 people on suspicion of distributing child pornography via the Internet, Polish Radio External Service reported on Saturday. Warsaw police spokesman Mariusz Sokolowski said the suspects were found searching for pornographic materials by the Interpol Office in Wiesbaden, Germany via a P2P social networking program. They could face [...]
Like any expectant mum, Angela Ihegboro spent many hours wondering what her new baby would look like. She made no secret of the fact that she hoped the little girl would turn out to be ‘just a mini version of me’. ‘We used to joke about it,’ she says, rolling her eyes as she looks [...]
Rescue workers were caught in a race against time to rescue a 10-year-old girl after a building collapsed in Italy killing three people. The victims died as they slept in the flats in Afragola, a small town near Naples in the early hours of the morning. They included a married couple and an elderly woman, [...]
A shocking video has emerged in France allegedly showing Parisian police officers violently evicting Africans and their children from a suburb in the French capital on July 21. According to reports, members of the 60-member immigrant group had been living on the streets in Paris’s La Courneuve district since being evicted from their council homes [...]
Sarko wants to start revoking citizenship. French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Friday that he wanted to take away French nationality from anyone who has foreign origins if he attacks cops. “French nationality should be stripped from anybody who has threatened the life of a police officer or anybody involved in public policing,” Sarkozy said. The [...]
Two of the world’s fastest cars – belonging to the new Qatari owners of Harrods – were clamped right outside the Knightsbridge store. The $1.8 Million (£1.2 million) Koenigsegg CCXR and $475,000 (£350,000) Lamborghini Murcielago LP670-4 SuperVeloce were parked outside the London department store last week. Crowds of tourists watched in disbelief as a traffic [...]
Six thousand matching black, silver and blue bicycles will hit the streets of London on Friday as the city officially launches its ambitious public bike sharing scheme. The initiative will allow commuters and tourists to take bikes from 400 docking stations, spaced at 300 yard intervals, for short journeys around central London. For an access [...]
A Spanish judge issued arrest warrants for three U.S. soldiers on Thursday in connection with the death of a Spanish TV cameraman in Iraq in 2003, reopening a long-running legal battle, according to a copy of the court order viewed by CNN. The judge, National Court Investigating Magistrate Santiago Pedraz, indicted the three U.S. soldiers [...]
French prosecutors said Thursday they charged a woman with murder after she admitted giving birth to and smothering eight babies over a 17-year period in northern France. The woman, Dominique Cottrez, said she hid the pregnancies and deaths from her husband, who said he had no idea what she had done, prosecutor Eric Vaillant told [...]
The quiet village of Viller-au-Tertre in north-eastern France was in a state of shock last night after the bodies of eight newborn babies were found buried in the ground. By late yesterday afternoon, this sleepy hamlet in France’s north-east had become infamous after police said it appeared to have played host to the worst infanticide [...]
Catalonia became the first Spanish mainland region to ban bullfighting after its parliament voted Wednesday to outlaw the tradition on animal cruelty grounds. The vote was 68 in favor and 55 against, with nine abstentions. Those who see the ancient tradition as animal cruelty were ecstatic about the vote, celebrating in the street outside parliament. [...]
This incredible picture shows how a lovers tiff between two sparrows ended abruptly when the male bird rudely took matters into his own claws and clamped his female friend’s beak shut. Bird watcher Urs Schmidli spent hours crouched in his garden trying to capture the perfect picture, but could not believe how the male bird [...]
A gel that can help decayed teeth grow back in just weeks may mean an end to fillings. The gel, which is being developed by scientists in France, works by prompting cells in teeth to start multiplying. They then form healthy new tooth tissue that gradually replaces what has been lost to decay. Researchers say [...]
In the biggest shake-up of policing for 50 years, ministers want the public to patrol alongside beat police officers or ‘bobbies’. They also intend to recruit up to 50,000 extra special constables to flood crime-plagued neighborhoods with an army of volunteers. And villages will be protected by a new breed of ‘police reservists’, modelled on [...]
A cruise passenger has died and another man was critically injured after the gangway taking them to their ship gave way at an Italian port. Dozens of other passengers including several Britons watched horrified as the metal walkway crashed more than 30 feet into the sea taking the 65 year old woman and the other [...]
But the tropical plants have been all but wiped out in parts of southern France by two beautiful but voracious insects: a South American moth and the Asian red palm weevil. The larvae of these two deadly “palmivores” ruthlessly eat their way through palm tree hearts often fatally wounding the plant. The paysandisia archon moth, [...]
Sister Marie-Daniel, 86, and Sister Saint-Denis, 82, fled their nunnery two weeks ago after convent officials said they were being sent to a remote mountain retreat 250 miles away. The pair vanished from the Sisters of Saint-Joseph convent in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, on the French Riviera convent, on July 12 and have not been seen since. A [...]
A popular Swiss tourist train carrying mainly Japanese holidaymakers derailed in the Alps on Friday, killing one and injuring 42 others, local police said. Police would not confirm the nationality of the deceased, but Japanese news agency Kyodo reported that the fatality was a 64-year-old Japanese woman. She was among 14 tourists and a guide [...]
A stampede inside a tunnel crowded with techno music fans crushed 18 people to death and injured dozens at Germany’s famed Love Parade festival on Saturday. Thousands of other revelers keep partying at the event in Duisburg, near Duesseldorf, unaware of the deadly stampede that started when police tried to block thousands more people from [...]
They say you learn from your mistakes – so it’s safe to assume this woman will never ever ever forget to put on the handbrake after parking on a slope again. Maria Rizzo, 34, stopped to admire the spectacular view from the street above this house in Alassio in northern Italy. But she was so [...]
A gay priest sex scandal has rocked the Catholic Church in Italy today after a weekly news magazine released details of a shock investigation it had carried out. Using hidden cameras, a journalist from Panorama magazine – owned by Italian Prime Minister and media baron Silvio Berlusconi – filmed three priests as they attended gay [...]
If you’ve taken Air France recently, check your pockets. A flight attendant from the airline has been arrested in Paris and accused of stealing jewelry, credit cards and cold hard cash from passengers as they slept, according to ABC News. The investigation was launched in January after five Japanese passengers told French police that over [...]
Two members of the French national soccer team, Franck Ribery and Karim Benzema, were being questioned by French police Tuesday in connection with an alleged underage prostitution ring, French police said. Ribery, who also plays for German team Bayern Munich, and Benzema, who plays for Spanish side Real Madrid, were being questioned by a police [...]
Even Willy Wonka might struggle to use this much chocolate. Yesterday, somebody bought 241,000 tons of cocoa beans. The purchase was enough to move the entire global cocoa market, sending the price to the highest level since 1977, and triggering rumours and intrigue in the City. It is unclear which person, or group of traders, [...]
In a scene right out of an Indiana Jones film, Italian police have managed to recover hundreds of ancient artefacts during an operation in Switzerland. Vases, bronze tools and marble statues of Venus, some dating as far back as the 8th century BC, were among 337 pieces put on triumphant display at the Colosseum in [...]
UK Students face a looming university admissions crisis as it emerged at least 220,000 applicants will be denied places this year. Swinging cuts to higher education budgets will result in record numbers being rejected from university. Experts believe that at least 100,000 rejected applicants will have good grades. The figures were published by the Universities [...]
One tycoon’s given her a $250,000 Bentley. Another’s lent her his jet. Now she’s partying with Branson on his private island… What does a person do when they have debts of around $3 Million and have just laid off their loyal staff? For Sarah Ferguson, the answer was to take off to the Caribbean to [...]
Zephyr, a British-designed solar-powered spy drone, has doubled the previous record for the longest unmanned flight. In trials above Arizona the Zephyr, billed as the plane that can fly forever, has already been up in the air for 168 hours – doubling the previous world record it set in 2008. The aircraft’s designers plan to [...]
Hollywood star George Clooney’s fans brought chaos to an Italian trial today as he gave evidence against alleged fraudsters accused of illegally using his name Clooney, 49, smiled and waved to onlookers as they crowded into the court building with the extra police who had been called in struggling to keep control. Trial judge Pietro [...]
Igor Sutyagin, one of the “Western spies” Russia handed over to the United States in a Cold War-style spy swap, has been granted the right to remain in the UK indefinitely. Mr Sutyagin, a former nuclear weapons expert, was one of four men Russia exchanged to get back ten of its own spies who were [...]
Four leading figures in the financial scandal enveloping French president Nicolas Sarkozy’s government were arrested today. One of them was the society photographer Francois-Marie Banier, the ‘special friend’ of multi-millionaire L’Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt. She is accused of providing ‘envelopes full of cash’ to Mr Sarkozy and his ruling UMP Party. The government is, in [...]
Enough fat to fill nine double-decker buses is being removed from sewers in central London in the largest ever sewer clean-up of its kind. A team of “flushers” equipped with full breathing apparatus has been drafted in with shovels to dig out an estimated 1,000 tons of putrid fat from an area under Leicester Square. [...]
Northern Ireland police came under live fire during a third straight night of Belfast unrest in scenes that a Catholic priest described Wednesday as “a Disney theme park for rioting.” The leaders of Northern Ireland’s Protestant-Catholic government, Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness, said they would meet police commander Matt Baggott to discuss ways of quelling [...]
Italian police arrested more than 300 people, seized weapons and confiscated millions of dollars worth of assets in the biggest operation in 15 years against the country’s most powerful mafia. More than 3,000 armed officers raided homes and offices controlled by the feared ‘Ndrangheta mafia in its home region of Calabria and around Milan. Suspects [...]
A Segway driver has become the first ever prosecuted for driving the motorized scooter on the pavement. Phillip Coates, 51, was on his way to do some shopping when he was flagged down by a policeman and told he was breaking the law. He was later interviewed and charged with riding a motor vehicle on [...]
p to 100 firefighters were last night battling a dramatic blaze in the top floors of a residential tower block. The entire roof of the building was engulfed by fierce flames and thick black smoke could be seen billowing into the sky from several miles away. It was unclear what sparked the early evening blaze [...]
The British Ministry of Defence has unveiled its prototype unmanned combat air vehicle (UCAV). Taranis is a concept design for a long-range strike plane that has taken over three million man hours to produce. Defence Minister Gerald Howarth said it was a “truly trailblazing project” and featured “the best of our nation’s advanced design and [...]
An Italian military police general, Giampaolo Ganzer, has been jailed for 14 years for drug smuggling and organizing fake anti-drug operations. General Ganzer was found guilty of using his work to import and sell drugs between 1991 and 1997, the newspaper Corriere della Serra reported. Under the leadership of the General, officers had formed their [...]
At least 27 police officers were injured in clashes overnight in Belfast, Northern Ireland, including three hit by shotgun pellets, police said Monday. About 200 people rushed into the streets around 11:45 p.m. Sunday (7:45 p.m. ET), with some throwing objects and explosives, police said. The injuries are not thought to be serious, police spokesman [...]
A family of former asylum-seekers from Somalia are living in a £2.1million luxury townhouse in one of Britain’s most exclusive addresses at a cost to taxpayers of £8,000 a month. Abdi and Sayruq Nur and their seven children moved into their three-storey property in a fashionable area of London last month because they didn’t like [...]
Where in the world would you find a man gambling a fortune in a recession on a spectacular new supercar and a $60 million factory to build it in? Any resemblance between the McLaren Technology Centre (MTC) and a Bond villain’s lair is entirely intentional. You can’t see it from the road, but the really [...]
The cash-strapped Duchess of York has been forced to fire her entire team of seven full-time staff to save money. In another blow, the Duchess has also parted company with Kate Waddington, her long-suffering public relations adviser who worked hard to improve the Duchess’s battered public image. The cutbacks will also affect three more staff [...]
Francis Maude, the Cabinet Office minister, said the Census, which takes place every 10 years, was an expensive and inaccurate way of measuring the number of people in Britain. Instead, the Government is examining different and cheaper ways to count the population more regularly, using existing public and private databases, including credit reference agencies. It [...]
An antiques dealer is facing jail after being convicted of possessing a stolen copy of Shakespeare’s First Folio. Raymond Scott, 53, was found guilty of handling stolen goods and removing stolen property from the UK in relation to the book, which has been described as part of England’s ”cultural legacy”. However he was cleared of [...]
Fugitive gunman Raoul Moat has died after apparently shooting himself following a six-hour stand-off with armed officers, police sources say. Police said earlier that “no shots were fired by police officers” and no officers were hurt in the incident. Moat was taken to hospital in Newcastle, but sources told the BBC later that he had [...]
After seven days on the run, fugitive killer Raoul Moat was tonight in a dramatic stand-off with armed police. He is perched by the very edge of a riverbank and holding a shotgun to his neck. Officers with high-powered rifles swamped the area of Rothbury in Northumberland at 7.30pm and an ambulance arrived and made [...]
An amateur treasure hunter armed with a metal detector has found over 52,000 Roman coins worth $1 Million buried in field, one of the largest ever such finds in the UK, said the British Museum. Dave Crisp, a hospital chef, came across the buried treasure while searching for “metal objects” in a field near Frome, [...]
Three would-be suicide bombers faced life in prison last night after being found guilty of conspiring to murder hundreds of people in an Al Qaeda-inspired terrorist attack. Ibrahim Savant, Arafat Waheed Khan and Waheed Zaman were recruited by the British-born terror cell leader who plotted to blow transatlantic airlines out of the sky with homemade [...]
Surgeons have completed the world’s first full face transplant in a groundbreaking operation lasting almost a day. A 35-year-old man, known as Jerome, received a dead donor’s features at the Henri-Mondor hospital in Paris last month. ‘It’s a world first – there have been partial face transplants before, but nothing like this,’ said a source [...]
Police stop-and-search powers were dramatically curbed today as Home Secretary Theresa May ruled they should only be used against suspected terrorists. The move was welcomed by civil liberties campaigners, coming after years of complaints that police misused the anti-terror laws to interrogate law-abiding citizens. It follows a recent European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruling [...]
A Pakistani man accused of being an Al-Qaeda operative was “deeply involved” in a plot targeting Britain and the United States, a lawyer told an extradition hearing in London Wednesday. Abid Naseer was arrested earlier Wednesday in northeast England on a US warrant, accused of involvement in a failed Pakistan-based campaign against American and British [...]
It could hardly be said to be the most dignified of send-offs. Undertakers in Belgium plan to eschew traditional burials and cremations and start dissolving corpses instead. The move is intended to tackle a lack of burial space and environmental concerns as 573lbs of carbon dioxide are released by each cremated corpse. Under the process, [...]
A former hedge fund manager shot himself on a Spanish beach to avoid being arrested over an alleged $375 Million Ponzi scheme. Dieter Frerichs, a German national who was once the managing director of K1 group funds K1 Global and K1 Invest, ran into the sea after police startled him while sunbathing at a house [...]
Finished in fluorescent ‘lumilectric magno’ paint, this is Mercedes-Benz’s eye-catching new electric-powered SLS AMG E-Cell development project. The zero-emission SLS AMG E-Cell boasts a power output of 535hp and 868lbs of torque, giving it a 0-62mph time of four seconds – that’s almost as fast as its 6.2-litre V8-powered SLS AMG sibling, which makes the [...]
The X Factor judge, 27, is said to have been diagnosed after collapsing at a photoshoot over the weekend. It follows a visit she made last month to the east African country of Tanzania. She is reportedly receiving treatment at London’s private Cromwell hospital, where her friend, dancer Derek Hough, was pictured yesterday. Yesterday Cole’s [...]
The Vatican has given Italian investigators permission to open up the tomb of a mafia gangster in an attempt to solve one of Italy’s most enduring mysteries – the kidnap of a teenage girl nearly 30 years ago. It has long been suspected that the tomb, in an underground crypt, may contain not only the [...]
Prosecutors demanded the extradition of a former Bosnian president to face war crimes charges after producing fresh evidence of his involvement in the massacre of 40 Yugoslav soldiers in 1992. Ejup Ganic has been held in London since March when Metropolitan Police arrested the war time leader on a Serbian extradition warrant. James Lewis QC, [...]
Two French ministers have resigned after arguments over spending thousands of Euros of taxpayers’ money on a private jet and Cuban cigars at a time when budget cuts are hitting the public. Development Minister Alain Joyandet and Christian Blanc, a junior minister tasked with overseeing development of a Greater Paris region, both tendered their resignation, [...]
Bill Shaw wept with joy yesterday after he was acquitted following a chaotic two-day appeal in which judges, witnesses, clerks and relatives all had to shout to be heard. A $25,000 fine was also overturned. Colleagues from private firm G4S, which guards the British Embassy in Kabul and provides security for foreigners in Afghanistan, cheered [...]
Treasure hunters armed with shovels and metal detectors have descended on a sleepy Austrian town in search of up to $6 Million said to have been buried there by a fraudulent German financial advisor, says ORF, the Austrian broadcasting corporation. The fortune is believed to have been buried in aluminium cases by Augustine G. in [...]
A 15-year-old boy died in his teacher’s arms today after he was ambushed by suspected rival gang members outside a school in South London. The stabbed teenager, named locally as Zac Olumegbon, was taken by air ambulance to a nearby hospital where he was declared dead. Saima Sadfdar, who runs a shop opposite the school [...]
A British gorilla expert, who escaped Rwanda during the genocide, has been murdered at her home in Cameroon. Ymke Warren, 40, had her throat slit after she was bound and gagged when she confronted an intruder at the home she shared with her boyfriend Aaron Nicholas in the coastal town of Limbe. Dr Warren had [...]
Christian Wulff, nominated by Merkel’s coalition government won the President election on Wednesday evening after three ballots. Wulff won 625 votes in the third ballot after failing to get an absolute majority in the first two secret ballots of the Federal Assembly, which is responsible for electing German President. His major competitor Joachim Gauck, a [...]
Couples who insult each other over their physical appearance or make false accusations about infidelity face jail, under a new French law making “psychological violence” a criminal offense. The law – the first of its kind – means that partners who make such insults or threats of physical violence faces up to three years in [...]
Italy will fight Wednesday against a European court ruling that crucifixes in classrooms violate students’ right to freedom of religion. The European Court of Human Rights found unanimously last November that the display of a particular religious symbol – such as the Christian cross – in a classroom “restricted the right of parents to educate [...]
A confidence trickster who claimed to be the son of one of IBM’s founders invented a show-jumping team to defraud leading members of the horse-riding set. George Schouten, 36, rented fast cars and an opulent country house in an attempt to convince suppliers and trainers to invest thousands in his ‘elaborate fantasy’ that he was [...]
Piers Morgan is to replace Larry King, the veteran US interviewer, in a $8 Million (£5.5 million) deal with CNN. The Britain’s Got Talent judge and former newspaper editor is on the verge of signing a four-year contract to take over King’s primetime show in the autumn. He has built a profile in the US [...]
Thousands of French people who collaborated with the Nazis are to be unmasked as secret files from 70 years ago are finally made public. The records, which include information passed on to the Gestapo by those who lived during the Occupation of 1940-44, will be published online. The archive will give survivors and their relatives [...]
Two British Eurostar passengers sparked a security alert by trying to board the high-speed train with a live artillery shell, it emerged today. The couple – who are believed to come from the London area – had picked up the casing, which dated back to the 19th Century, thinking it would make a ‘nice souvenir’. [...]
The 17th-century painting The Taking of Christ by Italian Renaissance artist Michelangelo Caravaggio, stolen from a Ukrainian museum in 2008, has been found in Berlin, Die Welt reported on Monday. The masterpiece, also known as the Kiss of Judas, was stolen from the Odessa Museum of Western and Eastern Art in southern Ukrainian city of [...]
Johanna Sigurdardottir, Iceland’s prime minister, married her long-time partner on Sunday as a new law legalizing homosexual marriages came into force. Miss Sigurdardottir, 68, formally married Jonina Leosdottir, a writer, after the couple submitted a demand for their civil union to be transformed into a marriage, the RUV broadcaster said. Iceland’s parliament on June 12 [...]
Le Monde’s journalists’ association, the paper’s main shareholder, have voted for the daily to be taken over by three French investors who President Nicolas Sarkozy sought to block. The consortium is made up of Pierre Berge, ex-partner of the late fashion designer Yves Saint-Laurent, Lazard banker Matthieu Pigasse and internet tycoon Xavier Niel. Mr Niel [...]
When unlucky-in-love Sandi Firth could not find a husband, her son decided drastic action was needed – he put her up for sale on eBay. She found herself listed as ‘Yiddishe momma for sale’ under the collectables category on the auction website, with a starting price of $1.50. Her son, James Doyen, came up with [...]
A Catholic priest who drove a Ferrari, kept mistresses and siphoned off more than $3 Million of charity donations has been jailed for fraud in France. Father Antoine Videau, 64, received a three-year prison sentence for crimes that led to him being known as the “Playboy Padre”. He was revealed to have been in possession [...]
A boy with an “unhealthy interest” in explosives and right wing politics made gunpowder and nailbombs with chemicals bought from his mother’s eBay account. Police found a pipe packed with nails and screws and charged with powder in the 16 year old’s bedroom, and a pipe with a firework inside hidden under a waste oil [...]
Yawning can be a sign of sexual attraction rather than a desire to sleep, scientists have claimed. In fact, it can demonstrate a range of emotions including interest, stress and even wanting to have sex. Unfortunately scientists are not yet able to differentiate between a yawn that signifies erotic arousal and simply the need to [...]
A British man has died following a sado-masochistic sex session with a woman who claims to be “Europe’s most perverted dominatrix”. The 58-year-old client, who drove a BMW, collapsed in a shower after an “intense session” with prostitutes calling themselves Mistress Lucrezia and Mistress Juno, at their villa near Brecht, Belgium. It is believed he [...]
A French prisoner killed his cellmate then sliced open his chest to remove and eat his heart, a court has heard. However, the man removed the wrong organ, and ate his lung by mistake. Nicolas Cocaign, 39, appeared in court in the northern city of Rouen for allegedly killing Thierry Baudry in January 2007 by [...]
A Royal Navy wren who came to Britain as an asylum seeker has been jailed for seven-and-a-half years for smuggling $3 Million worth of cocaine into the UK on board an Anti-Drug warship. Teresa Matos, 37, an Angolan-born steward from Contsworth Court, Gateshead, picked up 4.94kg of 100 per cent pure cocaine while HMS Manchester [...]
Maxim Bakiyev, the son of Kyrgyzstan’s deposed president, has won temporary asylum in Britain. Mr Bakiyev, 33, has been temporarily allowed to enter Britain, according to his lawyers Carter Ruck. He claims he fled Kyrgyzstan as authorities there were trying to make him a “scapegoat” for all their problems. They accuse him of instigating the [...]
John Lennon’s handwritten lyrics to ‘A Day in the Life’, have sold for $1.2 Million (£810,000) at auction, double their pre-sale high estimate. Lennon’s handwritten lyrics to the song, the final number on the Beatles album “Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”, had been expected to fetch between $500,000 to $700,000 (£338,000 to £473,000) at [...]
US intelligence showing Iran likely would have the capability to attack Europe with “scores or even hundreds” of missiles factored into the Obama administration’s decision to overhaul missile defenses, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Thursday. Citing the growing Iranian missile threat, the United States announced plans last September to integrate sea- and land-based missile [...]
Human remains found in a German cathedral are those of an English queen, one of the earliest members of the English royal family, it was confirmed today. Skeletal remains of Queen Eadgyth, who died over 1,000 years ago aged 36, were excavated from a tomb in the Magdeburg Cathedral in 2008. The almost intact bones [...]
Social services failed to properly monitor a mentally ill mother who smothered to death her baby daughter after filling her mouth with pages from the bible. Julia Lovemore, 41, a Christian fundamentalist with bi-polar disorder, was even visited by mental health workers on the day she killed six week-old Faith, Cambridge Crown Court was told. [...]
Ivan Cooper says Major General Robert Ford had overall responsibility for Paras during Bloody Sunday march. The civil rights activist who led the Bloody Sunday march has expressed his disappointment that the Saville report failed to criticise the man who took the decision to deploy paratroopers in Derry. Ivan Cooper said “overall responsibility” should have [...]
Two Dutch women were released on bail today after facing charges that they organised the ambush marketing stunt that led to 36 orange-clad women being ejected from Soccer City earlier this week. The women were arrested under the Contravention of Merchandise Marks Act, which prevents companies benefiting from an event without paying for advertising. The [...]
The World Cup needed a jolt. Switzerland provided it. Gelson Fernandes scored on a rare Swiss attack, giving his team a stunning 1-0 upset Wednesday over European champion and tournament favorite Spain. The loss ended Spain’s run of 12 straight wins and handed the Spanish just their second loss in 50 games – the other [...]
At least 19 people were killed in flash floods that hit the back hills of the French Riviera on Wednesday and turned streets into rivers of surging, muddy water, officials said. There was confusion about how many people were missing in the flooding that washed over picturesque towns and left them standing in meters (yards) [...]
Wine growers living in the shadow of a French nuclear reactor have been allowed to scrub the reactor’s name from their appellation after years of complaining that no-one wanted to drink their “radioactive” produce. Since 2008, vintners in the Côte du Rhône wine-producing area of southern France have been fighting to change the label of [...]
A France-based satellite provider is halting broadcasts of the Hamas TV channel to Europe and parts of the Arab world because of concerns that it spreads incitement, a station official said on Tuesday. The decision will deprive Gaza-based al-Aqsa TV of most of its viewers, said the channel’s head, Hazem Sharawy. The Hamas station – [...]
Amsterdam Police say a portrait painted by Dutch artist Piet Mondrian early in his career has been stolen from a museum in the Netherlands. Thieves apparently forced the doors at the Freriks Museum in the eastern town of Winterswijk in the early hours of Tuesday morning and took the painting, police say in a statement. [...]
British detectives are investigating claims that a British woman spent 10 years working in a slave labour camp in Pakistan after being abducted while visiting relatives. Naheeda Bi, 28, from Glasgow, says she was held hostage at a terrorist camp in a tribal area after she was seized by two men at Islamabad airport in [...]
The report into the deaths in Derry in 1972 has been 12 years in the making. After a 38-year struggle for truth and justice campaigners for those killed in Derry on Bloody Sunday tonight celebrated the Saville Report’s exoneration of the victims and the report’s unequivocal conclusion that the shootings were “unjustified”. The Bloody Sunday [...]
Winston Reid scored in second-half injury time Tuesday, lifting New Zealand to a 1-1 draw with Slovakia. Robert Vittek scored early in the second half, giving Slovakia the lead in World Cup Group F. But Reid sneaked behind the defense to take a long cross from Shane Smeltz and tie it. The Kiwis are ranked [...]
They are famed the world over for their stamina, hardiness and agility. Now this astonishing picture of grey Camargue horses, thundering through the marshes of Southern France, has scooped a British photographer a top award. Austin Thomas beat competitors from around the world to pick up the first prize in one of France’s most important [...]
Netherlands needed a lucky own goal and a late strike by Dirk Kuyt to get their World Cup campaign off to a winning start with a 2-0 win over Denmark in their Group E match at Soccer City on Monday. They took the lead just after halftime when Denmark defender Simon Poulsen’s misdirected header from [...]
Police in Sweden arrested dozens of Greenpeace activists on Monday after they broke into the Forsmark nuclear power plant ahead of a planned vote this week on whether to replace the country’s existing reactors. The activists entered Forsmark some 115 kilometers north of Stockholm early on Monday and several gained access to a building rooftop, [...]
A French journalist was today facing five years in prison for leaking an embarrassing video of President Nicolas Sarkozy. Augustin Scalbert, who works for the news website Rue89.fr, was charged with receiving stolen goods. These amounted to an off-air clip of Mr Sarkozy reprimanding a studio technician for not having any manners, and poking fun [...]
Contaminated water in car windscreen sprays could be behind 20 per cent of outbreaks of Legionnaires’ disease in Britain, a study has indicated. Health experts discovered professional drivers were five times more likely to be infected with the deadly bug, which is found in warm, stagnant water. Drivers are now being urged to add screenwash [...]
The latest generation of girls are reaching puberty before the age of 10, a new study suggests, raising fears they may also begin sexual activity earlier. Scientists have found that the average age that breast development begins is now nine years and 10 months – almost a year earlier than a previous study in 1991. [...]
The first time Tim Cahill ran into Bastian Schweinsteiger he earned a red card. The second time he dissolved into tears. Cahill, the hero of Australia’s 2006 World Cup campaign, was sent off on Sunday with a straight red card in the 56th minute for a late challenge on Schweinsteiger at Moses Mabhida Stadium. He [...]
The first World Cup in Africa has its first African winner. Ghana stunned Serbia when Asamoah Gyan scored on an 84th-minute penalty kick Sunday for a 1-0 victory in Group D. The win set off celebrations not only on the Loftus Versfeld pitch, but throughout Ghana. And across the African continent. “That’s what you’re seeing,” [...]
The arrest of a suspected Mossad agent in Warsaw is threatening to disrupt relations between Israel and two of its closest allies in the EU, Poland and Germany. The man held by Polish police was travelling on an Israeli passport under the name Uri Brodsky. The 43-year-old is believed by German prosecutors to have been [...]
The daughters of Prince Andrew are to lose their 24-hour police protection after an argument about the annual cost of their bodyguards, it is understood. Concerns have been expressed for a long time by successive Metropolitan police commissioners over the $750,000 (£500,000) a year bill paid for by the taxpayer for providing Princess Eugenie and [...]
Graffiti protester has become a symbol of resistance as a rising tide of visitors engulfs the local population. He, or she, is a Catalan cross between Banksy and an anti-tourism league. At night the mystery graffiti protester roams the streets of Barcelona’s old quarter leaving behind markings on the streets that divide them into separate [...]
Almost a million fans braved wet weather and took to the streets of South Korea on Saturday to cheer on the national team and celebrate a 2-0 win over Greece in their opening World Cup game. Police estimated 969,000 people nationwide, including nearly 200,000 in Seoul, gathered to watch their team in far away South [...]
An alleged Mossad spy from Israel wanted in connection with the hit-squad slaying of a Hamas agent in Dubai has been arrested in Poland, officials said Saturday. The man, using the name Uri Brodsky, is suspected of working for Mossad in Germany and helping to issue a fake German passport to a member of the [...]
Authorities in Switzerland are investigating whether an acupuncturist intentionally infected at least 15 people with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, an official said Thursday. The case shocked Switzerland when it came to light earlier this week, after Swiss tabloid Blick reported that authorities had kept silent on the allegations since first receiving a complaint [...]
Osama bin Laden’s family tree may soon get a new branch – in England. An eager surrogate has offered her body to the world’s most wanted terrorist’s fourth-oldest son, Omar, and his wife, the Daily Mail reports. Louise Pollard, a 24-year-old Brit, is trying to conceive using Omar bin Laden’s sperm and eggs from his [...]
Spain’s Altamira caves, which contain some of the world’s best prehistoric paintings, are to be reopened to the public, despite warnings that human breath will destroy the 20,000-year-old paintings. Spain’s Culture Ministry announced this week that the site would be reopened from the end of the year, a move scientists said carried “immeasurable” risks. Discovered [...]
Amanda Knox is to launch an appeal based on the claims of a former mafia gangster who alleges his brother killed Meredith Kercher during a bungled robbery. The claim may offer fresh hope to Knox, who in December was convicted of murdering the British student and sentenced to 26 years in prison. It will form [...]
Starting this fall, people hoping to go to Britain to either join their spouses or get married and immigrate will need to prove they can speak English. The requirement, announced Wednesday by the new conservative government of Prime Minister David Cameron, applies only to those from outside the European Union. The government said migrants will [...]
A tooth, thumb and finger cut off from the body of renowned Italian scientist Galileo, who died in 1642, go on display this week in Florence after an art collector found them by chance last year. The body parts, along with another finger and a vertebrae, were cut from Galileo’s corpse by scientists and historians [...]
The trial of a French trader accused of wracking up almost $6 billion in losses through authorized trades opened in Paris Tuesday. Former Societe Generale employee Jerome Kerviel is facing charges including forgery, breach of trust, and unauthorized computer use. He faces a penalty of up to five years in prison and a fine of [...]
Tourists buying fake designer goods on holiday in Italy have been warned to think twice after a woman was fined $1,500 for buying a handbag. Austrian senior citizen Ursula Corel, 65, was spotted handing over $10 for a Louis Vuitton handbag copy from a street vendor. She was spotted by the officers as they scanned [...]
Police have launched an operation to protect the family of Tony Hayward, BP’s British boss, after they received hate mail and threatening phone calls. The chief executive’s wife Maureen said the material had made her and her two children feel “rather uncomfortable” at their home in Kent. The family has been targeted amid growing hostility [...]
Tall security agents have been discreetly advised not to apply for a job guarding Nicolas Sarkozy, police sources have claimed. The vertically challenged French president is said to have banned statuesque bodyguards despite their added value of being able to spot potential attackers in a crowd. A police source told Le Parisien that “there’s no [...]
Peter Cathcart works for ousted prince of Ras al-Khaimah in the United Arab Emirates to co-ordinate a plot to return him to power. A bloodless coup to take control of an Arab Gulf state is being plotted by an unlikely alliance that includes a powerful firm of US lobbyists and a provincial English high-street solicitor. [...]
A woman magistrate was shot dead and her clerk killed with an axe by a lone attacker in an open Belgian courtroom yesterday. The killings triggered a police manhunt last night for the killer of Isabelle Brandon, a justice of the peace and her clerk, André Bellemans. Officers are investigating a theory that the murderer [...]
One of Monet’s celebrated water-lily paintings is to be auctioned in London for a price expected to reach up to $60 Million. The painting – dating back a century and from his most famous series of works – will be part of the most valuable art auction yet to take place in the city later [...]
The wave of cabin crew strikes at British Airways saw a 14 percent reduction in the number of passengers carried by the airline, according to the group’s latest traffic statistics. But with premium traffic only falling by 6.5pc, BA succeeded in protecting its most lucrative routes and catering for its most valuable passengers. The figures [...]
Derrick Bird, the gunman behind the Cumbria shootings, appeared to have selected some of his victims deliberately because of a “grudge”, police said. The 52 year-old self employed taxi driver, a licensed shotgun owner, killed 12 people including his twin brother in a rampage across Cumbria before taking his own life. After shooting his brother [...]
JP Morgan has been hit with the largest fine ever levied by the UK market regulator for risking its clients’ money by failing to put the balances into accounts separate from the US bank’s own funds. The Financial Services Authority fined JP Morgan Securities $50 Million for failing to segregate the cash balances kept by [...]
At least 12 people have been killed and 25 injured after a gunman — believed to be a local taxi driver — went on a shooting spree through three small towns in the English county of Cumbria on Wednesday. After a large scale search, Cumbria police found the body of the suspected gunman, 52-year-old Derrick [...]
A robbery by armed bandits who made off with 440 lbs. of gold jewellery worth $8 Million has left French detectives baffled and quietly impressed. Officers described the raid, in which a jewelery wholesaler and his family were held at gunpoint overnight, as a professional job carried out with military precision. In terms of forward [...]
It is the property deal that – for the first time – even senior Royal sources admit to being embarrassed about. In the week that Sarah, Duchess of York was exposed for taking $40,000 from an undercover reporter to set up a business meeting with her ex-husband, the sale of their former marital home to [...]
A man charged with the murders of three women who worked as prostitutes in northern England called himself “the Crossbow Cannibal” when asked to give his name in court Friday, the court said. Stephen Griffiths, 40, appeared in Bradford Magistrates Court in Bradford, about 200 miles north of London. He was arrested Monday on suspicion [...]
Armed men robbed a Stockholm auction house of more than $1.3 Million worth of jewellery in a daylight heist, police and Bukowski auctioneers said. Around 50 people were inside the building in an upmarket Stockholm district when three armed masked men entered around midday. “They came out after a moment and ran into a parked [...]
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