World Briefs

One of Britain’s most prestigious orchestras has performed to a rather unusual audience – row upon row of plants, in an attempt to see whether the music helps them grow.

The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra performed a three-hour recital in Cadogan Hall in London last week, with 33 musicians playing pieces including Mozart’s Symphony Number 40, it announced yesterday. In front of them were more than 100 different varieties of plants and bulbs including geraniums, fuschias and perennials.

The recital was organised by shopping channel QVC to test the contested theory that the reverberation of sound waves stimulates protein production in plants and may lead to increased growth. (AFP)

Dylan in Israel

Rock icon Bob Dylan is to perform in Israel on June 20, Haaretz newspaper reported yesterday.

The report said that Mr Dylan, who will turn 70 in May, would play a single concert at the Ran Gan stadium near Tel Aviv, Israel’s biggest with a capacity of 40,000.

Haaretz said the performance would be part of Mr Dylan’s world tour, due to start next month in Taiwan. The singer-songwriter has played Israel twice before, in 1987 and 1993.

The paper said that the performance was being organised by local promoter Marcel Avraham, who also staged a 2009 Leonard Cohen concert and a 2010 show by Elton John and is due to bring Justin Bieber to Israel next month.

The report comes in the wake of a call by Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters for a cultural boycott of Israel because of its treatment of Palestinians. (AFP)

Shotgun kids

Shotgun certificates have been issued to children as young as seven years old. Figures released under the Freedom of Information Act showed 13 children under the age of 10 have been issued with licences in the UK over the past three years.

Figures obtained by the BBC from 51 forces around the UK showed that, between 2008 and 2010, 7,071 licences were issued to under-18s. (PA)

Pregnancy test

Keepers at a marine wildlife park used ultrasound – and chain mail gloves – to check whether one of their venomous fish was pregnant.

Staff at Living Coasts in Torquay, Devon, noticed that Bonnie, a mangrove whipray, had put on some weight and suspected she might be carrying young.

The fish, who could have put them in hospital with a sting from her tail, was not pregnant and her weight gain has left staff puzzled. (PA)

Lawn protest

A plumber has put more than a dozen toilets on his lawn to protest at a local council decision that he says led to more parking on his street

David Linscott says the 17 toilets of various designs and colours outside his home in Kittery, Maine, US, are to show his anger at the closing of a primary school, which led to more parking near a now-expanded middle school.

He says people now wander onto his property. (PA)

Fiery survivor

A woman who thought her beloved dachshund was gone forever after a fire destroyed her Boston apartment a month ago has found the dog living in the wreckage.

Terisa Acevedo, 24, moved in with relatives but returned to the apartment after her landlord asked her to turn off the alarm on a vehicle in the driveway.

She heard scratching, pulled away the plywood covering the doorway and found the year-old pet, Lola, who she said was a little skinnier than she remembered. Vets say the dog somehow found food and water and is expected to fully recover. (PA)

Thief’s blunder

A man suspected of stealing a wallet from the desk of a prospective employer has been arrested after calling police to report that his own wallet was missing.

Officers in Boise, Idaho, US, realised 25-year-old Daniel Damico matched the description of the suspected wallet thief and arrested him.

They believe he used a credit card to buy tobacco and when he left the shop he thought he may have dropped his own wallet. Police recovered the credit card and the stolen wallet. Mr Damico’s wallet has not been found. (PA)