Police Officer Leaves Gun in Starbucks

Oopsy. Well, I guess the price of coffee is highway robbery - she was probably just making point.

A specialist armed police officer is facing investigation after leaving a loaded gun in a Starbucks cafe in central London, police said on Thursday.

The unnamed officer, who the Sun newspaper said provided personal protection for Middle East peace envoy Tony Blair, forgot the weapon after she visited the coffee house last week.

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Miss Great Britain for Parliament

If it was Italy, she'd probably have her clothes off!

clipped from news.yahoo.com LONDON (AFP) - Miss Great Britain vowed to "put the beauty back into politics" Monday as she launched a bid to get elected to parliament that could get Prime Minister Gordon Brown sweating. Gemma Garrett, 26, is standing for the newly-formed Beauties for Britain party. And the busty Belfast blonde could get Brown all hot under the collar with her antidote agenda to "serious and boring" politics. "It's a bit of fun and it's a bit light-hearted," she told reporters outside the Houses of Parliament in London. "I think that people should be proud of Britain and proud of themselves especially the beauties that Britain has produced over the years and I'm very proud to be Miss Great Britain and standing for this." Asked if she could help Brown tackle the global credit crunch and recover from Thursday's poll mauling, she replied: "No, but I could maybe give him some advice on beauty products."

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The British Are Getting Ruder

3000 people were interviewed for this survey on manners, but what you don't know is that 6,000 told the interviewer to *^?% off!

clipped from news.yahoo.com LONDON (Reuters) - Britons are ruder than they were a decade ago, according to a survey on Monday that showed almost three-quarters of people think manners should be taught at school. More than 90 percent of respondents believe parents are failing to ensure their children learn proper manners and that bad behaviour of celebrities and footballers are setting a poor example for impressionable youngsters. Spitting and swearing were the most offensive behaviours, it found, while queue-jumping and not saying "please" or "thank you" were other main gripes.

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Never Late for a Date!

When I was young, doing something like that would have been so cool!

clipped from news.yahoo.com LONDON (Reuters) - Prince William landed a Royal Air Force helicopter in the garden of the parents of his girlfriend Kate Middleton but the Ministry of Defence defended his actions, saying he achieved essential training objectives. The News of the World newspaper reported on Sunday the 25-year-old William, who is second in line to the throne, asked permission from his girlfriend's parents to land at their Berkshire home due to a shortage of landing slots in Hampshire. While aviation analyst and RAF-trained pilot Jon Lake told the News of the World the April 3 flight was "ridiculous and inappropriate", the MOD said the two-hour training mission was fully authorised as part of William's four-month RAF attachment. "Battlefield helicopter crews routinely practice landing in fields and confined spaces away from their airfields as a vital part of their training for operations," it said in a statement.

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Psychics Face Persecution

Yes, they should have seen it coming, but maybe they know the petition will work? Or perhaps they could go on strike? No fortunes being told would certainly bring the country to a halt.

clipped from news.yahoo.com LONDON (Reuters) - Fortune-tellers, mediums and spiritual healers marched on the home of the British prime minister at Downing Street on Friday to protest against new laws they fear will lead to them being "persecuted and prosecuted." Organizers say that replacing the Fraudulent Mediums Act of 1951 with new consumer protection rules will remove key legal protection for "genuine" mediums. They think skeptics might bring malicious prosecutions to force spiritualists to prove in court that they can heal people, see into the future or talk to the dead. With the changes expected to come into force next month, spiritualists have faced a barrage of headlines gleefully suggesting that they should have seen it coming.

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Hedgehogs Replace Dogs

It's like replacing a dog with a hamster. I can't see them replacing dogs, but they are cute.

clipped from news.yahoo.com LONDON (Reuters) - Can man's best friend be replaced by a prickly pal the size of your palm? Busy pet lovers have been buying hedgehogs, whose nocturnal habits make them appealing to the modern worker because they wake in the evening when their owners arrive home after a day in the office. "They are unbelievably pretty little creatures&, the way they bumble along, the way they poke their noses into everything," hedgehog breeder Bonnie Martin told Reuters. Initial costs for the animal and accompanying equipment can run to 300 pounds. But hedgehogs, who can survive on cat food, are cheaper to feed because they eat a third of the household cat's daily diet, Martin said.

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Five Legged Dog

Maybe they need more fire hydrants round there!

clipped from news.yahoo.com AVON LAKE, Ohio - A developmental problem split Angel the dog's leg, making her look like a five-legged pet. Veterinarian Frank Krupka, with the Avon Lake Animal Clinic in suburban Cleveland, said he's never seen anything like it. After examining X-rays, Krupka determined that a genetic aberration split Angel's front left leg in two, leaving her with three normal legs and two distinct parts of a fourth. Krupka said the condition doesn't cause pain but gives her problems moving around. He said surgery is unlikely on the about-7-month-old dog. Krupka said any surgery would be cosmetic and not improve the animal's walk.

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Celebrity Eggs

Makes a change from waxworks!

clipped from www.ananova.com David and Victoria Beckcham have become egg-heads - thanks to a charity Easter auction. Chocolatier Thorntons are auctioning a range of chocolate eggs bearing the faces of Victoria Beckham, David Beckham, Lily Allen, Prince Harry and Gordon Brown. Dark chocolate has been used to stencil the portraits onto white Easter Eggs which are ebing auctioned on eBay.

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Oddest Book Titles 2008

I think the shopping cart book is addressing a major issue in our society!

clipped from news.yahoo.com LONDON (AFP) - British industry magazine The Bookseller has announced this year's shortlist for the oddest book title of the year, with a typical mix of the quirky and eclectic. The nominees for The Diagram Prize are: -- "I Was Tortured by the Pygmy Love Queen" by Jasper McCutcheon; -- "How to Write a How to Write Book" by Brian Paddock; -- "Are Women Human? And Other International Dialogues" by Catharine A. MacKinnon; -- "Cheese Problems Solved" by P.L.H McSweeney; -- "If You Want Closure in Your Relationship, Start With Your Legs" by Big Boom; -- "People who Mattered in Southend and Beyond: From King Canute to Doctor Feelgood" by Dee Gordon. Last year's winner was "The Stray Shopping Carts of Eastern North America: A Guide to Field Identification", by Julian Montague. The Diagram Prize has been running since 1978, when the winner was "Proceedings of the Second International Workshop on Nude Mice".

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Escaped Hamster

Maybe the hamster really liked Alvin and was looking for him. These fans will go to any length!

clipped from www.ananova.com A hamster escaped after his five-year-old owner took him to the cinema to see Alvin and the Chipmunks. Sarah Stokes, of Pangbourne, Berks, thought her pet, called Hamish, would love to see the cartoon movie, reports the Daily Mirror. So she smuggled him out of his cage and carried him with her on an outing with gran Bernadette Bedford, sister Rachel, 10, and brother James, four. But Hamish popped out and disappeared under hundreds of seats - and Sarah was too scared to own up. Sarah finally plucked up courage to admit what happened. And after a flurry of phone calls, cinema staff eventually found Hamish beneath the screen. Igor Geyer, duty manager at the Showcase Cinema, said: "I'm glad we were able to reunite him with his owners."

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Another Reason Teenagers Hurt Their Wrists

If you can get hurt using a PC then something like the Wii could really hurt, especially if you're unfit.

British medical experts say that the Wii has caused thousands of injuries in the UK, especially among the middle-aged.

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Fat Bees Are Clever

That assumes that if there is more nectar the bees are fatter. But if they are more intelligent then they won't overeat. Which means they'll have too much nectar. Which they could sell to the dumb bees. Who don't have any money. But maybe they'll give the dumb bees a loan. Which would be pretty stupid. Oh wait - did I get mixed up with the sub-prime thing?

British researchers have found that more intelligent bees gather greater amounts of nectar.

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It's Official - Clowns Are Scary

So who does like clowns? Their mothers? Who else?

A study in Britain found that children aged 4-16 didn't like clowns. Every single one of the 250 interviewed expressed a dislike.

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Bilingual Dogs Invade Britain

The sad thing is that the dogs will probably become fluent in two languages, much better than humans

clipped from news.yahoo.com LONDON (AFP) - British police dog handlers are learning to give orders to their animals in German after bosses decided to import Alsatians because of a shortage of suitable animals here, media reports said Friday. A trial of the German dogs by Derbyshire Police in east central England has been deemed a success, prompting 16 other forces to recruit the canines at 2,000 pounds (2,600 euros, 3,900 dollars) each. Handlers have had to learn a series of orders in German, including "sitz" (sit), "platz" (down), "aus" (let go), "holen" (fetch) and "bissen" (bite). A Derbyshire Police spokeswoman told the Press Association news agency said they were attempting to get the dogs to respond to English. "We are repeating the German commands in English so they are becoming bilingual," she added.

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Cat Spends Two Months Locked in Shed

Poor pussy. Then they showed how much they loved her by giving her away!

clipped from www.ananova.com A cat accidentally locked in a garden shed in Devon survived for two months by licking condensation off the windows. Emmy, imprisoned when she followed her owner into the garden shed in Toray which he locked up for the winter, left tongue marks on the glass. The family has since moved and given Emmy to the Blue Cross animal centre, reports the BBC. Centre manager Laura Valentine said the family had been upset at the accidental distress they caused the 10-year-old cat. "She is absolutely fine now and is a little fighter," she added.

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11 Months of Hiccups

He should stand on his head in a pond - that would cure it

clipped from www.ananova.com A Lincoln man suffered non-stop hiccups for the past 11 months. Chris Sands, 24, has tried everything including holding his breath, drinking from the wrong side of a glass and getting a fright since the hiccups started last February. He has had a brain scan, abdomen scan, chest scan and CT scan all in an effort to uncover the reason behind his mystery hiccupping, but so far there has been no diagnosis. Desperate for help, Chris launched a blog on the MySpace website earlier in the year in the hopes that people will help him find a cure. Charles Osborne, of Anthon, Iowa, holds the record for the longest ever bout of hiccups, which lasted for 68 years from 1922 until 1990.

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Beetles Older Than Dinosaurs

And the Rolling Stones are older than both of them.

clipped from news.yahoo.com New research hints that modern-day versions of the insects are far older than any tyrannosaur that trod the Earth. Today's plethora of beetle species were thought to have blossomed 140 million years ago, during the rise of flowering plants. But the new study of beetle DNA and fossils, published in the Dec. 21 issue of the journal Science, pushes their appearance back to 300 million years ago. "Unlike the dinosaurs which dwindled to extinction, beetles survived because of their ecological diversity and adaptability," said the study's lead scientist Alfried Vogler, an entomologist at Imperial College London and the Natural History Museum in London. "The large number of beetle species existing today could very well be a direct result of this early evolution," Vogler said, "and the fact that there has been a very high rate of survival and continuous diversification of many lineages since then."

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UFO Details Coming in the Spring

It's like waiting for the next season of the X-Files.

The British Government plan to release 160 files regarding UFOs in the spring.

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Brits Can't Take Hangovers

Where's that stiff upper lip? Hiding in your bed because of a little headache? Hah!

clipped from news.yahoo.com LONDON (AFP) - The morning after the night before is the main reason in Britain for employees calling in sick, a study published Wednesday showed. One in five workers opting to stay in bed do so because of over-indulgence, according to 500 individuals surveyed by Unum insurance company. Scots are the most likely to take sick leave in this way. After a hangover, the next most frequent pretext for taking time off work on medical grounds is the desire to spend time at home making up after a domestic dispute.

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Jack and Grace on Top

It's amazing how much influence Britney Spears has on society.

Jack was the most popular boy's name in the UK in 2007 (for the fifth year running), and Grace was the most popular girls name. Jayden (the name of Britney Spears second son) was the highest mover.

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