The Sex Pistols’ infamous God Save the Queen poster has been reworked to feature an image of royal bride-to-be Kate Middleton.

Prince William’s fiancée is depicted with short hair and a tiara against the background of the Union flag with paint splattered around her features. The original promotional poster for the Sex Pistols was produced in the Queen’s Silver Jubilee year of 1977.

The new piece by the 38-year-old London artist called Zoobs – real name Zoran Zarre – is the latest creative project to be inspired by Prince William’s plans to wed Miss Middleton. (PA)

Whipped to death

Police in Bangladesh have arrested four Islamic clerics after a teenage girl was whipped to death for allegedly having an illicit relationship with a married man.

The clerics are accused of orde­ring 14-year-old Mosammet Hena to receive 100 lashes in a fatwa or religious edict at a village in south-western Shariatpur district.

Fatwas are illegal in Bangladesh, a Muslim-majority nation governed by secular laws.

But Islamic clerics often preside over courts that use Sharia law and issue fatwas to deal with issues like extra-marital relationships. The girl collapsed after she was lashed in public with a bamboo cane about 70 times.

She was taken to a hospital and died hours later.

The 40-year-old man with whom the girl was allegedly involved was also sentenced to 100 lashes. He fled to escape the punishment. (AP)

Maria Schneider dies

French actress Maria Schneider who starred in the controversial film Last Tango in Paris has died. She was 58.

A representative of the Act 1 talent agency says Ms Schneider died in Paris yesterday “following a long illness”.

Ms Schneider was 19 when she starred opposite Marlon Brando in Bernardo Bertolucci’s Last Tango in Paris, which came out in 1972.

Mr Brando plays a middle-aged American businessman who takes up with a young Parisian woman, played by Ms Schneider. (AP)

James Bond volcano

According to the James Bond version, circa 1967, Japan’s Mount Shinmoe was a serene, extinct peak with a scenic, lake-filled crater that provided the perfect perch for 007 and his bikini-clad partner to spy on the lair of supervillain Ernst Stavro Blofeld.

In real life, the volcano, in its biggest series of eruptions in 52 years, burst back to life last week and is wreaking havoc with airline schedules, forcing schools and roads to close and dumping ash and rocks across towns on Kyushu, the southernmost of Japan’s four main islands.

Yesterday the volcano spewed a huge plume a mile into the air and sent rubble cascading down its forested slopes. Officials say they expect the eruptions to continue and possibly intensify, for weeks to come. (PA)

Blondes only

A Lithuanian company plans to build a “fantasy resort” staffed only by blondes in the Maldives.

The Maldives requires foreign developers to hire at least 50 per cent local staff but Olialia brand manager Lauryna Anuseviciute says “staff who are not blonde will wear a blonde wig to make everyone look similar”.

She insists Olialia already has secured financing but Maldives tourism officials say they have not received any details about the resort and have not issued any permits. (PA)

McDonald kidnap

A group calling itself the Food Liberation Army has claimed responsibility for “kidnapping” a statue of the McDonald’s food chain mascot Ronald McDonald and has threatened to “execute” the figure if their demands are not met. The group posted a video on YouTube where balaclava-clad “terrorists”, holding the clown statue with a bag over its head, demanded that the world’s largest food chain answer questions about its corporate responsibility and food production.

One “terrorist” said the statue, which was taken from a Helsinki restaurant on January 31 by two men posing as maintenance personnel, would be executed on Friday, February 11. (AFP)

Bigger ambulances

Ambulance fleets across the UK are being revamped with wider stretchers and lifting gear to cope with the increasing number of fat patients.

Every ambulance service in the UK has started buying the specialist equipment, according to data obtained by the BBC. Standard ambulances are being stocked with heavy-duty wheelchairs, stretchers and lifting cushions. But many services have also bought “bariatric” ambulances, costing up to £90,000 each, to ferry the most obese.

The specialist ambulances are equipped with double-width trolley stretchers to accommodate patients weighing up to 50 stone and also tend to include hoists and inflatable lifting cushions. (AP)

Feathery road

A major road was shut for three hours after a lorry loaded with feathers caught fire. Traffic came to a standstill after white feathers, used to fill duvets, were strewn across the A14 near Huntingdon, Cambridge­shire. Firefighters said the fuel tank had ruptured causing an extensive fire. (PA)

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