World Briefs

A British radio presenter has been sacked after he pulled the plug on Queen Elizabeth II's traditional Christmas Day speech, telling listeners it was "boring."

Tom Binns has lost his job at Birmingham radio station BRMB after a number of listeners complained over his interruption of the monarch's traditional December 25 broadcast to Britain and the Commonwealth.

"Two words: Bor-ring," he said on air as he stopped the broadcast, before quipping "from one Queen to another..." as he put on "Last Christmas" by pop duo Wham, featuring openly gay singer George Michael.

Mr Binns explained that the incident occurred after the Queen's speech - a decades-old tradition - came on at a point when he had expected a regular news bulletin. (AFP)

Nightmare in Coventry

Customs officials averted a potential nightmare when they intercepted terrifying Freddy Krueger-style claws (of Friday the 13th series).

The giant claws were seized by sharp-eyed staff from the UK Border Agency at the international postal hub in Coventry.

Staff at the depot have seized drugs, imitation weapons and a package containing thousands of fake Viagra tablets in recent months. (PA)

Bacon saved

A busy motorway had to be closed after a herd of pigs escaped and ran on a carriageway.

The southbound M11 towards London was shut after a HGV carrying a consignment of 82 pigs crashed. Some 12 animals escaped from the lorry and ran free on the road.

The carriageway was closed while emergency crews rounded up the animals and secured them in a makeshift pen. (PA)

Model stomach

Researchers have developed a machine which is an accurate working model of a human stomach.

Scientists at the Institute of Food Research in Norfolk, UK, developed the tool which allows them to study the complexities of human digestion.

The machine, which took more than 10 years to create, will also be used to test pharmaceutical interactions in the digestive system. The Dynamic Gastric Model mimics all the key processes that take place in the stomach, including the complex biochemical conditions and gastric forces. (PA)

Thirsty work

It took artists 3,604 cups of coffee to recreate the Mona Lisa, none of which was drunk.

The cups were filled with different amounts of milk to create various shades, then set out across the floor to form the Mona Lisa when viewed from above.

The image was displayed at the Aroma Festival at the Rocks in Sydney. (PA)

White Christmas

A US couple letting their navigation system guide them through the high desert of Eastern Oregon spent their entire Christmas stuck in snow.

The GPS unit sent the Nevada couple down a remote forest road on Christmas Day. After three days, weather conditions finally changed enough for their mobile phone to get a weak signal and alert rescuers.

"It will be a Christmas we remember the rest of our lives," Starry Bush-Rhoads said in a telephone interview from her home. (PA)

Pink parking with wider bays

A pink car park with wider spaces has been built for women to use when they visit a Chinese shopping centre.

The Shijiazhuang city facility is designed to appeal to women's "strong sense of colour and different sense of distance", according to a supermarket spokesman.

The parking bays are three feet wider than standard ones and female parking attendants have been trained to guide drivers into their spaces. (PA)

World's fastest train stopped!

The world's fastest train hit its first speed bump in the form of a disobedient smoker less than a week after it began running in southern China.

A cigarette triggered an alarm that forced a two-and-a-half hour stoppage, nearly as long as the train takes to cover the 1,100 kilometre distance between Guangzhou and Wuhan.

Managers of the bullet train, which debuted on Saturday, were unable to catch the smoker who fled the scene before the alarm sounded, the official Xinhua news agency reported yesterday.

"Smoking is strictly forbidden on the Wuhan-Guangzhou high-speed train, even in the toilet," a spokesman with the Guangzhou Railway Group Corporation was quoted as saying. (Reuters)