A Conservative city council candidate has said he is “truly sorry” after lying during a radio phone-in about honesty in politics.
Ashley Waterhouse, 22, a Conservative standing in the Normanton ward, rang BBC Radio Derby’s breakfast show calling himself “Paul in Normanton” after he was told that candidates in May’s election could not take part in the discussion.
Breakfast show host Phil Trow told listeners alarm bells rang when staff recognised his voice and rang him back to check his identity. (PA)
Art apology
Organisers of an art project have apologised after they were “misled” by the “famous Liverpudlian sense of humour”.
Liverpool Discovers was forced to apologise after it published claims in a tour guide that the first draft of Martin Luther King Jnr’s “I have a dream” speech was penned in Liverpool’s Adelphi Hotel.
A spokesman for Liverpool Discovers, which gathered information through a public consultation before checking it with local historians, said: “We do recognise on this occasion that maybe the famous Liverpudlian sense of humour has had the last laugh but this is why we do use the word ‘alleged’ in relation to the information.” (PA)
‘Softie’ soldier
A Singaporean soldier who was photographed with a maid carrying his rucksack has undergone counselling and is “remorseful” over his behaviour, the Defence Ministry said.
The picture, circulated by local media then seen around the world after spreading on the internet, had sparked outrage and concern that recruits to Singapore’s armed forces are “softies”.
“The serviceman concerned has identified himself to his commander,” Defence Ministry director of public affairs Colonel Desmond Tan said in a letter published in the Straits Times yesterday. “He has been counselled and continues his training.”
The photograph showed the young soldier in fatigues and combat boots walking on a footpath, with his female domestic helper following behind with his military-issue rucksack. (AFP)
Webcam evidence
Spanish police have detained a Romanian man who strangled his pregnant wife in front of the couple’s three-year-old daughter and then showed her body to his father in Romania by webcam, police said yesterday.
Police detained Dorel Marcu, 21, after being alerted by Romanian police who were notified by his father before he could carry out a threat to kill his wife’s 13-year-old sister as well, police said in a statement.
Mr Marcu told his father through an internet chat “that he had strangled his wife while he showed him the lifeless body of his partner via webcam,” the statement said.
“He also said that when the victim’s 13-year-old sister returned home, she would ‘suffer the same fate’,” it added. (AFP)
Cow ride
When Regina Mayer’s parents dashed her hopes of getting a horse, the resourceful 15-year-old turned to a cow called Luna to make her riding dreams come true.
After hours of training, the pair regularly go on long rides through the southern German countryside, near the hamlet of Laufen, and do jumps over a makeshift hurdle of beer crates and painted logs.
“She thinks she’s a horse,” Regina joked. “When she wants to do something, she does it, when she doesn’t, she doesn’t. And she’s often very headstrong but can also be really adorable.” (PA)
Amorous amphibians
A Philadelphia road is being closed to prevent motorists squashing toads which hop across the carriageway to find a mate.
Volunteers are closing Port Royal Avenue in the city’s Roxborough neighbourhood so the toads can pass safely to a reservoir where they mate.
Toad Detour head Lisa Levinson is asking motorists using other streets to be on the lookout too, saying one car can kill hundreds of toads. (PA)
Honeymoon disaster
Swedish newlyweds Stefan and Erika Svanstrom’s four-month honeymoon turned from a dream into a serious of disasters.
The couple and their baby daughter were stranded by a snowstorm in Germany and experienced a cyclone and flooding in Australia.
They narrowly missed the New Zealand earthquake but arrived in their final destination, Tokyo, in time for Japan’s largest tremor since records began. (PA)
Sniper lessons
Azerbaijan yesterday launched sniper lessons for young people, including girls, amid its bitter unresolved conflict with neighbouring Armenia in which marksmen are often used on the frontline.
Teenagers as young as 16 are taking part in the sniper courses for civilians, which have an upper age limit of 30, and participants will also learn about fighting techniques, weaponry, map-reading skills and legal issues.
“This is to develop feelings of bravery and courage in young people, which will turn a teenager into a bold, fearless soldier in the future,” Walid Gardashov of Azerbaijan’s Voluntary Military-Patriotic Sport-Technical Society, which is organising the lessons, told AFP.
The training sessions are free for schoolchildren under the age of 18, while older participants must pay $63 (€44). (AFP)
Pod run
A fundraising runner has become the first person to complete a marathon inside a capsule of the London Eye.
Marathon veteran Noel Bresland, 34, covered 26.2 miles on a treadmill, running for three hours 51 minutes.
The event, which raised funds for charities Children with Leukaemia and Bliss, was part of Mr Bresland’s attempt to complete 223 marathons in 10 years following the death of his 223-day-old nephew Ethan. (PA)