World Briefs

Gordon Brown is the party leader whom women in a key election group dubbed the "Lambrini Ladies" least want to snog, a survey has found.

Just three per cent of the group - women aged 20-30 in low-paid jobs who are yet to be seduced by political parties - said they wanted to kiss the Prime Minister, compared with 14.9 per cent for David Cameron and 16.9 per cent for Nick Clegg.

The research was carried out after a report by Professor Stephen Fielding from the University of Nottingham identified the Lambrini Ladies as "the lost political generation". Lambrini, a brand of light perry, was marketed under the slogan: "Lambrini girls just wanna have fun." 1,416 women identified as Lambrini Ladies were polled. (PA)

Young tourists' geography mix-ups

Young travellers cannot tell fact from fiction when it comes to foreign destinations, according to a poll.

Almost 10 per cent reckon Kazakhstan does not exist while 54 per cent believe the West African town of Timbuktu is a made-up place, the survey by travel company www.sunshine.co.uk showed.

One respondent even thought France was in Spain in the survey of 2,865 people aged 18 to 30.

The poll also showed that seven per cent thought Africa was a country rather than a continent while 12 per cent reckoned New Zealand was part of Australia. Another 37 per cent believed Atlantis was a real place they could visit in Greece and eight per cent believed Madagascar to be a film. (PA)

Sexiest accent in the UK

The Geordie accent has been boosted by celebrities including Cheryl Cole to be voted the sexiest in the UK.

Research on different ways of speaking in British cities found Newcastle was the most appealing, followed by Edinburgh and then Belfast.

5,000 people were polled online in February for Travelodge. (PA)

1,001 excuses for all occasions

Spotting a UFO and claiming colour blindness are among unusual excuses given by drivers for not paying parking fines, it was revealed.

The UFO spotter said he was so shocked by what he had seen that he drove into a bus lane, according to parking appeals made to Southwark Council in south London.

Another appellant said: "I'm colour blind, so I thought the yellow line was green."

Other reasons given to the council over the last two years have included: "It was raining. I thought I could park anywhere if the weather was bad" and " I had to pick up and take an injured dog to the vet and did not want the animal to endure any unnecessary extra pain by limping further to the car." (PA)

Iceland's Pizza Huts mostly to go

Pizza Hut is shutting down all but one of its restaurants in Iceland because of an economic crisis that has killed demand for its fast food, the firm has said, just months after McDonald's left the island. Once a common indulgence for Icelanders, ordering a pepperoni pizza for delivery has become too expensive for many on the island nation of 320,000 in the wake of its spectacular financial collapse in late 2008.

Pizza Hut said it was closing two of its three restaurants after more than 20 years of operation due to reduced demand, the soaring cost of importing raw materials and the crash of the crown currency.

"It's obvious that families have less money to spend and restaurants are among the first things people cut," Pizza Hut manager Thordis Loa Thorhallsdottir said. (Reuters)

Chinese fined for lip-synching

Two Chinese singers have become the first people in the country to fall foul of new rules banning lip-synching nearly two years after widespread criticism of miming at the Beijing Olympics' opening ceremony.

The two young female singers were spotted lip-synching during a concert in China's Chengdu city last year, the official Xinhua news agency said.

"No signals were received from their microphones while the show was on," it quoted an official with the local government's cultural affairs office as saying. The two have been fined 50,000 yuan (€5,430) each.

China's feisty internet users frequently blame famous singers of short-selling their fans by lip-synching on stage. But some have also wondered why these first fines were levelled against two almost unknown singers rather than more famous stars. (Reuters)

Pilgrims flock to see Shroud

Thousands of pilgrims and tourists flocked to northern Italy at the weekend for a rare chance to see the Shroud of Turin, the mysterious yellowing linen which some Christians believe was Christ's burial cloth.

The cloth, which bears the inexplicable image - eerily reversed like a photographic negative - of a crucified man, went on display on Saturday evening for the first time in 10 years. Measuring 4.4 by 1.2 metres, it shows the back and front of a bearded man with long hair, his arms crossed on his chest, while the entire cloth is marked by what appears to be rivulets of blood from wounds in the wrists, feet and side.

Sceptics argue the Shroud is a mediaeval hoax, possibly made to attract the profitable pilgrimage business but hard-core believers have little doubt over the authenticity of the cloth.

"There's something indefinable in finding Jesus Christ in front of you," said one visitor. (Reuters)