A mother cremated a body she thought was that of her dead son, only to find that he was still alive when he turned up later, police in Manchester, England, said yesterday.
Gina Partington's 37-year-old son Thomas Dennison was reported missing last month. When a body was found three days later, the 58-year-old mother formally identified it as that of her son, and after an inquest, the body was cremated on October 30. But police had actually found Mr Dennison living rough in Nottingham four days earlier. Somehow Ms Partington was not told of her son's discovery before she attended the cremation.
Altar wine over the limit
Celebrating more than one mass a day may push Roman Catholic priests over the alcohol limit if tougher drink driving rules come into effect in Ireland, a leading clergyman said yesterday.
Under proposed Irish legislation, the limit of 80 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood is expected to be tightened. However, as the ranks of the Catholic clergy are thinning out, Irish priests often drive to several churches on Sunday to say mass for congregations who have no resident clergy. Wine prepared for use in services has to be consumed as throwing it away is blasphemous.
"You could be over the limit trying to travel between maybe two or three churches on a Sunday morning and coming back again," a church spokesman said, referring to priests who had to take three services in a day.
Minister caught with mobile
British Home Office minister Liam Byrne was fined £100 yesterday for talking on a mobile phone while driving, his department confirmed. The 37 year-old MP for Birmingham Hodge Hill was also ordered to pay £45 in costs and had three points docked from his licence. Mr Byrne admitted the charge at Sutton Coldfield Magistrates' Court. Media reports said the incident happened in July while Mr Byrne was driving north of Birmingham. His conviction comes after tough new penalties were introduced earlier this year for anyone caught driving while talking on a hand-held mobile phone.
'Chessboard killer' files appeal
Russia's "chessboard killer" has appealed his life sentence, saying he thinks spending the rest of his life in jail is too strong a punishment for murdering 48 people, his lawyer said yesterday.
Alexander Pichushkin, who showed no remorse during his trial, was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison last month. But his lawyer said the serial killer thinks the punishment does not fit the crime and should be cut to 25 years.
Mr Pichushkin, who claimed during his trial to have killed 63 people, goaded detectives for taking years to track him down.
Fried chicken service in N. Korea
North Korea will get its first fried chicken delivery service this month when a South Korean-invested outlet opens for business in the impoverished communist state's capital.
Choi Won-ho, who runs a 70-store fried chicken franchise in the South, said he would hire about 30 North Koreans to take telephone orders, fry home-grown chicken and hop on scooters to make home deliveries in Pyongyang, in a country that can hardly feed its people even when it has a good harvest.
The project was bogged down by scepticism in the South, suspicion in the North and little government backing at the outset from either side but now Choi will split the profits with a North Korean state trading firm that he signed with for the outlet near the landmark Arch of Triumph in central Pyongyang.
Farewell to a chimp
Washoe, the chimpanzee researchers said was the first non-human to acquire a human language, is being remembered by some as a dear friend and an inspiration.
Washoe, which died on Tuesday night, aged 42, after a brief illness, first learned American Sign Language in a research project in Nevada, according to the Chimpanzee and Human Communication Institute (CHCI) where it had lived since 1980.
A memorial service will be held on November 12.
Washoe, named for the Nevada county where it lived until it was five years old, was the matriarch of the family housed at the institute dedicated to the study of the chimpanzee's communication skills and behaviour.
Suspect runs over WPC
A UK female detective was critically ill in hospital yesterday after she was knocked down by a car driven by a suspect she was trying to arrest, police said. Detective Constable Catherine Corbett, 39, suffered serious head injuries in the collision in Hayes, near Heathrow airport.
The officer from the West Midlands force was run over as she tried to arrest a man outside a hotel during a fraud investigation.
The suspect fled in a blue Peugeot 207 that was later found abandoned nearby.
West Midlands police said,"No arrests have been made at this stage."